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TOURING 

IN l600 

A Study in the Development of 
Travel as a Means of Education 

By E. S. Bates 



With Illustrations from Contemporary Sources 




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BOSTON AND NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
I 9 I I 



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*> 

9 



COPYRIGHT, I9U, BY K. S. BATES 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



THIS FIRST EDITION CONSISTS 
OF THREE HUNDRED COPIES 
OF WHICH THIS IS NO/^*'/^' 



M 10.00 



TO 



i> 



CONTENTS 

I. Some of the Tourists 3 

II. GUIDE-BOOKS AND GUIDES 35 

III. On the Water 60 

IV. Christian Europe 

PART I. EUROPEAN EUROPE 95 

PART II. THE UNVISITED NORTH 1 54 

PART III. THE MISUNDERSTOOD WEST 1 62 

V. Mohammedan Europe 

PART I. THE GRAND SIGNOR l82 
PART II. JERUSALEM AND THE WAY THITHER 205 

VI. Inns 240 

VII. On the Road 284 

VIII. The Purse 313 

Special References 381 

Bibliography 389 

Index 407 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Departure of a Tourist Frontispiece 

{British Museum MS. Egerton 1222, fol. 44.) 

A Pilgrimage Scene 18 

From a woodcut by Michael Ostendorfer (151Q-1559) or 
perhaps by his master, Albrecht Altdorfer. Both lived 
at Regensburg, where the scene of this picture is laid, this 
shrine of Our Lady of Regensburg being a regular pil- 
grimage centre {British Museum). 

The Cheapest Way 22 

" Les Bohemiens" {no. 1) by Jacques Callot {1594- 
16 33). The artist ran away from home to Italy when a 
youngster and fell in with company of this kind on the 
road. The second state {1633; British Museum) has been 
reproduced in preference to the first as being in no way 
inferior and having the advantage of the verses ap- 
pended to them by another traveller of the time, the Abbe 
de Marolles. 

A Typical Town-Plan 52 

Map of Venice, illustrating especially the disregard of 
scale. From H. de Beauveau's " Relation journaliere," 
1615. 

A Typical Map 54 

Part of Flanders, from Matthew Quadt's u Geographisch 
Handtbuch,^ 1600. Illustrates the approximateness of 
detail and the absence of roads, especially as contrasted 
with the indications of waterways. But it must be noted 
that cartography made as great advances during the 
period here dealt with as surgery during the nineteenth 
century. 



Illustrations 



A Channel Passage-Boat 64 

From Minster's " Cosmographie," 1575 («. 865 — 
part of the map of Germany). 

Ship for a Long-Distance Voyage 72 

Dutch vessel, showing the open cabins at the stern in 
which Moryson preferred to sleep. From J. Fiirtenbach's 
"Architectura Navalis," 162Q. 

Lock between Bologna and Ferrara 82 

From J. Furtenbach's " Newes Itinerarium Italia," 
1627. There were nine of these in thirty-five miles. Fiir- 
tenbach's sketch shows an oval basin as seen from above, 
with lock-gates at the down-stream end only. He gives 
its measurements as large enough for three vessels, with 
walls twenty ells high. 

Gate of St. George, Antwerp 122 

The gate as it appeared about the middle of the sixteenth 
century {Peter Bruegel the elder: Bibl. Royale de Bel- 
gique), showing also the long covered waggon which was 
practically the only land conveyance in use, apart from 
litters. 

Venetian Mountebanks 134 

Painted between 1573 and 1579; from a Stammbuch 
(British Museum MS. Egerton JJQl). Concerning 
these mountebanks the French traveller Villamont writes 
in 1588, 'And if it happens that they [ i. e. the 'sights' 
of Venice] bore you, go and look at the 'charlatans' 
in St. Mark's Place, mounted on platforms, enlarging 
on the virtues of their wares, with musicians by their 
side.' 

Public Executions 136 

The " Supplicium Sceleri Froenum" of Jacques Callot 
(1 592-1635). The first state of the etching seems to be 
unobtainable for reproduction, this being from a photo- 



Illustrations 



XI 



graph {the only one hitherto reproduced?) of one of the 
better copies of the second slate, almost equally rare in a 
good condition {Dresden Museum). 

Dangers of the Northern Seas 156 

According to Miinster's " Cosmographie," 1575 {ii. 
1724). 

At Montserrat 164 

Montserrat and its hermitages, with the Madonna and 
Child in the foreground and two pilgrims. From Brit- 
ish Museum Harleian MS. 3822, folio 596. The two 
pilgrims are obviously the writer of the manuscript, 
Diego Cuelbis, of Leipzig, and his companion, Joel 
Koris. They visited Montserrat in 1599. 

An Irish Dinner 178 

Referring more particularly to the MacSweynes, "whose 
usages," says the author, John Derricke, in his "Image 
of Irelande," 1381, "I beheld after the fashion there set 
down." From the copy {the only complete one known) 
in the Drummond Collection in the Library of the Uni- 
versity of Edinburgh. The cut also illustrates the con- 
trasts in Irish life as seen by the foreigner, referred to in 
the chapter on Ireland. 

An Example of Turkish Fine Art 190 

Miniature illustrating some of the characteristics of 
Turkish art which Delia Valle and other contemporary 
travellers prized so highly. The brilliant colouring of 
the original throws into relief much detail in the flowers 
which is necessarily lost in reproduction. {From Brit. 
Mus. Add. MS. 15,153 ; a copy of the Turkish transla- 
tion of the Fables of Bidpai, dated 1589.) 

Pilgrims leaving Jaffa for Jerusalem, 1581 210 

From the MS. of Sebastien Werro, cure of Fribourg 
{Bibl. de la Societe Economique de Fribourg). Showing 
also the fort at Jaffa, the caves in which pilgrims had to 



^ 



Xll 



Illustrations 



lodge until permission was given to depart, and the per- 
emptory methods of the Turks when a pilgrim got out of 
the line of march. 

At Mount Sinai 222 

From Christopher Fiirer's " Itinerarium" (1566). 

Arms of a Jerusalem Pilgrim 238 

Arms of Sebastien Werro, cure of Fribourg, Switzer- 
land, surmounted by the arms of the Knights of the Holy 
Sepulchre, showing that he received that knighthood on 
the occasion of his pilgrimage thither, 1581. The title- 
page of the account of his journey written by himself 
(Bibl. de la Soci'ete Economique de Fribourg). 

Two German Kitchens 254 

The 'fat' and the 'lean.' Plates 58 and 63 of J. T. de 
Bry' s " Proscenium Vita Humana'" ("Emblemata Sce- 
cularia"). From the copy of the first edition {1596) in 
the Bodleian Library at Oxford. 

German Bathing-Places 268 

From Miinster's Cosmography ; two of the woodcuts 
are from the French edition of 1575 (ii. 1020-21), the 
other from the Latin edition of 1550. Visitors to Berlin 
will find the subject more artistically illustrated by the 
" Jugendbrunnen" of Lucas Cranach the younger, too 
large for reproduction here to do it justice. 

The Red Gate, Antwerp 272 

As it was about the middle of the sixteenth century {plate I 
of Peter Br eugel the elder's " Pr&diorum Villarum . . . 
Lcones" ; Bibl. Royale de Belgique), showing also the inn 
which, according to the custom so convenient to late ar- 
rivals, was usually to be found outside the gate of a town. 

A Main Road in Alsace 284 

Showing ruts and loose stones. From Miinster's Cos- 
mographia''' {1550; p. 455). 



Illustrations 



Xlll 



A Sign-Post 



294 



From the 1570 edition of Barclay's translation of 
Brandt's " Ship of Fools." 

" The hande whiche men unto a crosse do nayle 
Shewyth the way ofte to a man wandrynge 
Which by the same his right way can nat fayle." 

Benighted 'Sight '-seers 312 

From Josse de Damhouder's "Praxis Rerum Crimi- 
nalium," 1554.. 

A Passenger-Boat from Padua 328 

From the " ' Stammbuch" {1578-83) of Gregory Amman 
in the Landesbibliothek, Cassel. 

Rabelais receives some Money 342 

Rabelais' receipt for money received by him against a 
bill of exchange such as travellers used. Photographed 
{with M. Heulhard's transcription) from the latter' s 
"Rabelais, ses Voyages, et son Exil." 

Lithgow in Trouble 348 

From the 1632 edition of his "Rare Adventures." 



354 



Travellers attacked by Robbers 

No. 7 of Jacques Callot's " Miseres de la Guerre"; a 
photograph of the British Museum copy of the second 
impression {1633). The second state has been chosen in 
preference to the first, as including the verses of the 
Abbe de Marolles, himself a traveller; the clearness of the 
etching not having suffered in the second impression. 

"Wolves" 356 

Another wood-cut from Derricke's "Image of Irelande," 
or rather, part of one, the size of the original. It repre- 
sents Derricke's best wishes for Rory Oge, the 'rebel,' but 
is none the less applicable generally. 



XIV 



Illustrations 



A Souvenir 360 

A letter which was on the way between Venice and Lon- 
don in October, 1606, when the bearer was attacked by 
robbers in Lorraine, showing the tears and damp-stains 
it received in consequence. The letter is from Sir Henry 
Wotton, then ambassador in Venice; it was -picked up 
and forwarded to Henry IV of France, who sent it on to 
London. It is now in the Public Records Office, No. 74. 
in Bundle 3 of the State Papers, Foreign {Venetian). 
The bearer, Rowland Woodward, was paid £60 on Feb. 
2, 1608, as compensation and for doctor's expenses, but 
had not fully recovered from his injuries by 1625. {Cf. 
L. P. Smith's "Life and Letters of Sir Henry Wotton," 
i, 323-8, 363 note, and ii. 481.) 

A Scholar Traveller 390 

Francois de Maulde (1336-gy); portrait by J. Sadeler 
{Bibl. Roy ale de Belgique). He was only about thirty 
when this portrait was done, but his sufferings as a trav- 
eller {see Bibliography) would alone account for his weary 
look. The inscription belonging to it runs: — 

" Tristia sive secunda fluant, in utrumque parato 
Duke mihi in libris vivere, duke mori est." 



TOURING IN l600 



" Che Dio voglia che V. S. abbia pazienza di leggerla 

tutta." 

Pietro della Valle^ u Il Pellegrino." 



TOURING IN l6oo 

CHAPTER I 

SOME OF THE TOURISTS 

But thus you see we maintain a trade, not for gold, silver, 
nor jewels; nor for silks; nor for spices; nor any other commod- 
ity of matter; but only for God's first creature, which was Light; 
to have Light (I say), of the growth of all parts of the world . . . 
we have twelve that sail into foreign countries, . . . who bring 
us the books, and abstracts and patterns of experiments of all 
other parts. These we call Merchants of Light. 

F. Bacon (1 561-1626), New Atlantis. 

FIRST, M. de Montaigne. — When Mon- 
taigne found himself feeling old and ill, in 
1580, he made up his mind to try the baths 
of Germany and Italy. So he set out ; and returned 
in 1581. And sometimes the baths did him good 
and sometimes they made no difference; but the 
journeying never failed to do what the baths were 
meant for. He always, he says, found forgetful- 
ness of his age and infirmities in travelling. How- 
ever restless at night, he was alert in the morning, 
if the morning meant starting for somewhere 
fresh. Compared with Montaigne at home, Mon- 
taigne abroad never got tired or fretful; always 
in good spirits, always interested in everything, 



Touring in 1600 



and ready for a talk with the first man he met. And 
when his companions suggested that they would 
like to get to the journey's end, and that the longest 
way round, which he preferred, had its disadvan- 
tages, especially when it was a bye-road leading 
back to the place they started from, he would say, 
that he never set out for anywhere particular; 
that he had not gone out of the way, because his 
way lay through unfamiliar places, and the only 
place he wished to avoid was where he had been 
before or where he had to stop. And that he felt 
as one who was reading some delightful tale and 
dreaded to come upon the last page. 

So, no doubt, felt Fynes Moryson, for much of 
his life he spent either in travelling or in writing 
the record of it. Starting in 1591, when he was 
twenty-five, he passed through Germany, the 
Low Countries, Denmark, Poland, Austria, Swit- 
zerland, and Italy, spending his winters at Leip- 
zig, Leyden, Padua, and Venice, learning the lan- 
guages so thoroughly as to be able to disguise his 
nationality at will. Returning through France, 
he was robbed, and consequently reached home 
so disreputable-looking that the servant took him 
for a burglar. He found his brother planning a 
journey to Jerusalem. On the 29th of November, 
1595, they set out, and on July 10, 1597, he was 
back in London, in appearance again so strange 
that the Dogberry of Aldersgate Street wrote him 
down for a Jesuit. But he returned alone: his bro- 



Some of the Tourists 



ther Henry, twenty-six years old and not strong, 
fell ill at Aleppo, how ill no one knew till too late, 
and near Iskendenin he died in his brother's arms, 
while the Turks stood round, jeering and thiev- 
ing. Fynes buried him there with stones above 
him to keep off the jackals, and an epitaph which 
a later traveller by chance has preserved. 1 

To thee, deare Henry Morison, 
Thy brother Phines, here left alone, 
Hath left this fading memorie. 
For monuments and all must die. 

Fynes himself hurried home and never crossed 
the Channel again. But he extended his know- 
ledge of Great Britain by a visit to Scotland, and 
by accompanying Sir Charles Blount during the 
latter's conquest of Ireland. Then he settled down 
to write all he knew and could get to know about 
the countries he had seen, and wrote at such length 
that no one till quite recently has had the cour- 
age to reprint his account, although what he 
printed was by no means all that he wrote. For 
this reason his work has remained practically un- 
used, even by writers whom it specially concerns. 
It must form the basis of any description of the 
countries he saw, at any rate, as seen by a for- 
eigner, going, as he does, more into detail than 
any one else, and being a thoroughly fair-minded, 
level-headed, and well-educated man, whose know- 
ledge was the result of experience. His day was 
not the day of the 'Grand Tourist/ whose habit 



Touring in 1600 



it was to disguise single facts as general state- 
ments, and others' general statements as his own 
experiences. 

Yet however irreplaceable may be Montaigne's 
subjectivity and Moryson's objectivity, it is de- 
sirable to find some one who combines both. Such 
a one is Pietro della Valle, of Naples and Rome. 
He is the impersonation of contemporary Italy 
at its best; of, to use his own phrase, "quella 
civilta di vivere e quello splendore all' italiana," 
and to read his letters is to realise, as in no other 
way can be so readily realised, the reason why 
Italy held the position she did in the ideas of 
sixteenth-century people. If you separate the 
various characteristics that account for much of 
the attractiveness of his writings; the interest 
in things small and great, without triviality or 
ponderousness; the ability to write, combined 
with entire freedom from affectation; the lovable- 
ness of his Italian and a charm of phrase apart 
from his Italian, which might even, perhaps, sur- 
vive translation; learning without arrogance and 
hand in hand with observation; and refinement 
and virility living in him as a single quality — 
if you isolate these, there still remains something 
to distinguish him from contemporary travellers, 
the product of gifts and character, it is true, 
but only of gifts and character as moulded by 
contact from birth with the best of a splendid 
civilisation, of which all the gentlemen of Eu- 



Some of the Tourists 



rope were students, but none but natives gradu- 
ates. 

Still, in one respect, contemporary travellers 
may claim he has taken an unfair advantage. Not 
one of them has a romantic love-story as a back- 
ground to his journeyings; Delia Valle has two. 
L After a twelve years' courtship at home, his in- 
tended bride was given by her parents to some 
one elserj This was the cause of his wanderings. 
At San Marcellino at Naples, a mass was sung 
and the nuns prayed, the little golden pilgrim's 
staff he wore round his neck was blessed, and a 
vow made by him never to take it off until he 
had visited the Holy Sepulchre. 

Thus he became Pietro della Valle, "II Pelle- 
grino" (the Pilgrim); and started. Venice, Con- 
stantinople, Cairo, Jerusalem, Damascus, was 
his route; but his next letter thereafter is "from 
my tent in the desert": he has disappeared over 
the tourist horizon, and become a traveller on the 
grand scale. But he returns, and has much to say 
on the way back. Meanwhile, in Babylon, he has 
met another lady-love, Maani Gioerida, eighteen 
years old, daughter of an Assyrian father and an 
Armenian mother. Marriage with her was soon 
followed by her death; for the remaining four 
years of his wanderings he carried her body with 
him, laying it to rest in the end in his family tomb : 
and married again, this time the girl who had 
attended his first wife, alive and dead, Maria 



8 "Touring in 1600 

Tinatin di Ziba, a Georgian. And with her he lived 
happy ever after, and by her had fourteen sons. 

Another type of traveller is the philosopher 
philosophizing. Sir Henry Blount set four par- 
ticular aims before himself when he started for 
southeastern Europe with the intention of in- 
creasing his knowledge of things human, choosing 
the southeast because the west too closely re- 
sembled England. He went to note, first, the 
characteristics of "the religion, manners, and 
policy of the Turks" in so far as these threw light 
on the question whether they were, as reputed, 
barbarous, or possessed of a different variety of 
civilisation. Secondly, to satisfy the interest he 
felt in the subject-races, especially Jews; thirdly, 
to study the Turkish army about to set out for 
Poland; and fourthly, Cairo, which being the 
largest city existing, or on record, had problems 
of its own whose solutions he wished to note, much 
as foreigners might come to study London County 
Council doings now. This was in 1634. 

But besides those who were born travellers and 
those who achieved travel, there were those who 
had travel thrust upon them; Thomas Dallam, 
for instance. Dallam was the master organ- 
builder of Elizabethan England. When, there- 
fore, the Queen wished to send such a present to 
the Grand Turk as should assure her outshin- 
ing all other sovereigns in his eyes and assist the 
Levant Company (who probably paid for it) in 



Some of the Tourists 



securing further privileges, an organ was the pre- 
sent, and Dallam had to make it and to take it. 
In 1599 he set out, and in 1600 praised God for 
his return. He, too, was an excellent English- 
man: shrewd, interested, and interesting; and with 
an ability to express himself just abreast of his 
thinking faculty. His organ was a marvellous 
creation; played chimes, and song-tunes by itself, 
had two dummy-men on it who fanfared on sil- 
ver trumpets, and, above, an imitation holly- 
bush filled with mechanical birds which sang and 
shook their wings. The Grand Turk sent for 
Dallam to play on it, which he did rather ner- 
vously, having been warned that it meant death 
to touch the Signor, and the latter sat so near 
behind him that "I touched his knee with my 
breeches. . . . He sat so right behind me that he 
could not see what I did, therefore he stood up, 
but in his rising from his chair, he gave me a 
thrust forward, which he could not otherwise do, 
he sat so near me : but I thought he had been 
drawing his sword to cut off my head." 

The organ was so great a success that Dallam 
became a favoured man. One attendant even let 
him look in at a "grating through which he saw 
thirty of the girls of the harem playing ball, each 
wearing a chain of pearls round the neck, a ring of 
gold round the ankle, velvet slippers, a small cap 
of cloth of gold, breeches of the finest muslin, and 
a scarlet satin jacket. 



io "Touring in 1600 



Dallam was more in favour than he liked, for he 
was urged to settle there. " I answered them that 
I had a wife and children in England who did 
expect my return, though indeed I had neither 
wife nor children, yet to excuse myself I made 
them that answer." 

Besides the business man who became a tourist 
without knowing it, there were the tourists who 
became so because home was too hot for them. Of 
their number was William Lithgow, whose "Rare 
Adventures" is the record of nineteen years' 
travel, ended in 1620 by the severity of the tor- 
ture he endured in Spain through being taken for a 
spy. Although fifty years of age when he started 
writing his account, a fair sample of his style is, — 
"Here in Argos I had the ground to be a pillow, 
and the world-wide fields to be a chamber, the 
whirling windy skies to be a roof to my winter- 
blasted lodging, the humid vapours of cold Noc- 
turna to accompany the unwished-for bed of my 
repose." And this was accompanied by so much 
second-hand history and doggerel that the printer 
rebelled and saved us from much more of it. The 
trustworthiness of his facts may be gauged by his 
stating as the result of his personal experience 
that Scotland is one hundred and twenty miles 
longer than England. On the other hand, he vis- 
ited more places in Europe than any other one 
tourist, besides having some experience of Pales- 
tine and North Africa; and what he wrote he 



Some of the "Tourists 1 1 

wrote after he had seen all that he did see. His 
comparisons are, therefore, worth attention, and 
these and the personal experiences which his 
verbiage has not crowded out of his book give it a 
permanent value and interest to those who have 
the patience to find them. 

All this while we are forgetting the ladies ; very- 
few in number, but three at least possessing per- 
sonality, — two princesses and an ambassador's 
wife. Princess number one was the eldest daughter 
of Philip II of Spain, the Infanta Dona Clara 
Eugenia, who crossed Europe with her husband, 
to take up the government of the Low Countries, 
in 1599, and wrote a long letter to her brother 
about the journey from Milan to Brussels, bright 
and pithy, one of the most readable and sensible 
letters that remain to us from the sixteenth cen- 
tury. Princess number two is the daughter of a 
king of Sweden, who had trouble in finding a hus- 
band for Princess Cecily, inasmuch as she would 
marry no one who would not promise to take her 
to England within a year from the wedding day; 
for the great desire of her life was to see Queen 
Elizabeth. A marquis of Baden accepted the con- 
dition, and on November 12, 1564, they started, by 
which time she had spent four years learning Eng- 
lish and could speak it well. The voyage took ten 
months, the winter was a severe one, and much of 
their way lay through countries whose kings were 
hostile to her father and the inhabitants to every 



1 2 "Touring in 1600 

stranger. Leaving Stockholm while her relatives 
expressed their opinion about her journey by 
lamentations and fainting-fits, she crossed to Fin- 
land in a storm, in which the pilot lost heart to the 
extent of pointing out the rock on which they were 
going to be shipwrecked. Finland they left in four 
days, to escape starvation, during another storm; 
crossed to Lithuania; thence by land through 
Poland, North Germany, and Flanders, to Calais. 
Even from here it was not plain sailing, in any 
sense of the words; the sea was high when she 
started; all were sick ("with the cruel surges of 
the water and the rolling of the unsavoury ship"), 
except herself, standing on the hatches, looking 
towards England. But it proved impossible to get 
into Dover and they had to turn back. "'Alas!' 
quoth she, 'now must I needs be sick, both in body 
and in mind,' and therewith taking her cabin, 
waxed wonderful sick." A second time they tried; 
and again all were sick but herself; "she sitting 
always upon the hatches, passed the time in sing- 
ing the English psalms of David after the English 
note and ditty." But again they had to turn back 
and again that made her sick, so sick that they 
thought she was going to be confined, for she had 
become pregnant about the time of her starting. 
A third attempt was successful; and on Septem- 
ber 11, 1565, she arrived at Bedford House, 
Strand; on the 14th Queen Elizabeth arrived there, 
too, to see her; and on the 15th came the baby. 



Some of the Tourists 13 

This story ought to end like Delia Valle's, that she 
lived happy ever after; but that cannot truthfully 
be said, because of what is recorded about Prin- 
cess Cecily and certain unpaid London tradesmen. 
Much more would there be to say of her as a tour- 
ist, had she written an autobiography; for the rest 
of her life she continued travelling, spending all 
her own money on it and much of other people's. 

The third, the ambassador's wife, is Ann, Lady 
Fanshawe. Her travels belong, strictly speaking, 
to dates just outside the limits (1542- 1642) with 
which this book is concerned, but for all practical 
purposes may be referred to with little reserve. 
Her experience was great, for her journeys were 
even more numerous than her pregnancies, which 
numbered eighteen; and being cheerful, clear- 
headed, and sincere in no ordinary measure, her 
"Memoirs" are almost as excellent a record of 
travel as of character. 

It is a matter for regret that her husband, Sir 
Richard, has not left us an account of his own, but 
in this he resembles practically all his kind. There 
is Sir Robert Sherley, who went ambassador to 
two Emperors, two Popes, twice to Spain, twice 
to Poland, once to Russia, twice to Persia : yet of 
Sir Robert Sherley as tourist, we know next to 
nothing. So also of Sir Paul Pindar, who says in a 
letter that he has had eighteen years' experience 
of Italy; and De Foix, a man greatly gifted, who 
wished to serve his country as far as possible dis- 



14 Touring in 1600 

tant from its Valois Kings, and consequently chose 
a series of embassies as an honourable, useful 
form of self-exile. Yet of these last two and others 
there remains some record by means of men who 
accompanied them. Part of the travels of Peter 
Mundy, whose name will often recur, happened in 
the train of the former; and when De Thou, the 
historian, paid the visit to Italy which he recounts 
in his autobiography, it was with De Foix that he 
went. 

Among the exceptions, most noticeable is 
Augier Ghiselin de Busbecq, a Fleming. After 
representing the Emperor in England at the wed- 
ding of Philip and Mary, he was sent to Constanti- 
nople (15 56-1 562), and afterwards to France. His 
letters from France that have been preserved are 
semi-official; of minor interest compared with 
those from Constantinople, which, not meant for 
publication but addressed to friends who were 
worthy of them, in time became printed. They 
belong to the literature of middle age, that which 
is written by men of fine character and fine educa- 
tion when successful issues out of many trials 
have made them wise and left them young. A 
many-sided man: the library at Vienna is the 
richer for his presents to the Emperor; many are 
the stories he tells of the wild animals he kept 
to while away the hours of the imprisonment 
which he, ambassador as he was, had to endure; 
the introducer into Europe of lilac, tulips, and 



Some of the 'Tourists 15 

syringa ; a collector of coins when such an occu- 
pation was not usual as a hobby. His opportuni- 
ties, indeed, were such as occur no more; in Asia 
Minor coins one thousand years old were in daily 
use as weights; and yet Busbecq missed one 
chance, for a brazier to whom he was referred 
regretted he had not met him a few days earlier, 
when he had had a vessel full of old coins which he 
had just melted down to make kettles. 

Turning from the personalities to the causes of 
travel, we find that the class to which Busbecq 
belonged, that of resident ambassador, was of 
recent growth, and that it, and the tendencies of 
which it is one symptom, are responsible for 
creating the whole of the motives and the facili- 
ties for travel which characterise journeyings of 
this time as something different in kind from 
those which preceded them. The custom of main- 
taining resident representatives was developed in 
Italy during the fifteenth century, but it did not 
spread to the rest of civilised Europe till near the 
beginning of the next; German research, indeed, 
has even narrowed down the dates within which it 
established itself as an international system to 
1494-1497. 2 The change was partly due to the 
consolidation of sovereignties, which increased 
the distances to be traversed between neighbour- 
princes, partly to the insight of the three great 
rulers who achieved the consolidations, — Ferdi- 
nand of Aragon, Louis XI, and Henry VII, who 



1 6 Touring in 1600 

abandoned the idea of force and isolation as the 
only possible policies, and attempted to gain the 
advantages, and avoid the disadvantages, of both 
by means of ambassadors. Henry VII regarded 
them as in no way differing from spies; the most 
efficient kind of spies, from the point of view of 
the sender; and unavoidable, from that of the re- 
ceiver. The latter's only remedy, Henry VII 
thought, was to send two for every one received. 
This alone, regarded, as it must be, considering 
who the speaker was, as indicating what the prac- 
tice of the future would be, suffices to explain, 
even to prove, a great increase in diplomatic move- 
ments. But what further compels the deduction 
is that the foregoing is reported by Comines, who 
was probably, next to Francesco Guicciardini, 
the most frequently read historian throughout the 
sixteenth century. 

Side by side with these official spies was the 
secret service; bound to grow in proportion to the 
increase among the former, implying a certain 
cosmopolitanism in its members, which, again, 
implies touring. This class of tourists is naturally 
the least communicative of all, but so far as Eng- 
land alone is concerned, if the history of the growth 
of the English spy-system between Thomas and 
Oliver Cromwell ever comes to be written, it is 
bound to reveal an enormous number of men, 
continually on the move for such purposes, or 
qualifying themselves for secret service by pre- 



Some of the Tourists 17 

vious travel. And while there is a certain amount 
of information concerning tourists and touring 
to be gathered, in scraps, among State Papers 
which concern spies as spies, there is a great deal 
available, often first-hand, from them during 
this period of probation. Many, also, would be 
termed spies by their enemies and news-writers 
by their friends; persons who are abroad for some 
other, more or less genuine, reason, whose infor- 
mation was very welcome to those at home in 
the absence of newspapers, and was often paid 
for by politicians who could acquire a greater hold 
on the attention of those in power by means of 
knowledge which was exclusive during a period 
when the Foreign Office of a government existed 
in a far less definitely organised form than at 
present. It was in the course of such a mission 
that Edmund Spenser saw most of Europe and 
gained that intimate knowledge of contempo- 
rary politics which gives his poems a value which 
would have been more generally recognised had 
not their value as poetry overshadowed other 
merits. The traveller, then, still fulfilled what had 
been his chief use to humanity in mediaeval times, 
that of a "bearer of tydynges," as Chaucer insists 
often enough in his "House of Fame." 

It is worth while turning back to Chaucer's 
time to see how far the classes of travellers then 
existing have their counterparts in 1600, and how 
far not. Omitting students and artizans, as not 



18 "Touring in 1600 

varying, the types to be met on the road then may 
be collected into those of commerce, pilgrimage, 
vagabondage, and knight-errantry. 

With regard to commerce, it may safely be 
guessed that the absence of the modern inventions 
for communication at a distance implied, in 1600 
as in Chaucer's day, a greater proportional num- 
ber of journeys in person than at present: and the 
enormous extension of commerce involved in the 
discoveries of sea-routes must have involved an 
increase in commercial traffic within Europe. As 
for the particular forms of trade that were respon- 
sible for taking men away from their homes, 
within the limits of Europe, it would probably be 
found, if statistics were possible, that dried fish 
came first, with wine and corn bracketed second. 
The Roman Catholic fast-days had produced a 
habit of eating dried fish which was not to be 
shaken off, in the strictest Protestant quarters, 
directly; and it was largely used for provisioning 
armies. 

The second class of mediaeval traveller, the pil- 
grim, is often in evidence about 1600, usually in- 
direct evidence; the pilgrim who is nothing but 
pilgrim leaves practically no detailed record of 
himself except when he goes to Jerusalem. Yet 
Evelyn was told at Rome that during the year of 
Jubilee, 1600, twenty-five thousand five hundred 
women visitors were registered at the pilgrims' 
hospice of the Holy Trinity there, and four hun- 



A PILGRIMAGE SCENE 

From a woodcut by Michael Ostendorfer (1519-1559) or perhaps by 
his master, Albrecht Altdorfer. Both lived at Regensburg, where 
the scene of this picture is laid, this shrine of Our Lady of RegensLurg 
being a regular pilgrimage centre {British Museum). 



Some of the Tourists 19 



dred and forty thousand men. Also, one who was 
at Montserrat in 1599, was told that six hundred 
pilgrims dined there every day, and at high festi- 
vals between three thousand and four thousand; 
while another (1619) learnt that whereas the 
monks' income from their thirty-seven estates 
stood at nine thousand scudi (say, thirteen thou- 
sand pounds at to-day's values) annually, they 
spent seven times that amount, the balance being 
derived from the sale of sanctified articles or from 
gifts. 3 On the whole, however, a decrease must be 
presupposed during this period on account of the 
cessation of pilgrimage among the Protestant half 
of Europe. Moreover, the kind of journeying 
which is specially characteristic of this period 
incidentally tended to further Protestant ideas 
and discredit pilgrimage. For pilgrimage was, of 
course, towards some relic. Now relics which 
mutually excluded each other's genuineness, such 
as two heads of one saint, were not likely to be 
met with on the same pilgrim route: the estab- 
lishment of one such on a given route would 
hinder the establishment of a second for financial, 
as well as devotional, reasons. But when a be- 
liever travelled for diplomatic or educational 
purposes, his direction was quite as likely to lead 
across pilgrim routes, as along them. In which 
case he would be morally certain to come across 
these mutually exclusive relics, on one and the 
same journey, and the doubts thus started 



20 "Touring in 1600 

might be cumulative in their results. 4 On the 
other hand the very fact of opposition stimulated 
pilgrim zeal among the orthodox, as, e. g., to the 
still nourishing shrine of Notre Dame des Ardil- 
liers near Saumur, as a result of Saumur itself be- 
coming a headquarters of the "Reformed" creed. 
There abided of course the permanent features of 
life which make pilgrimage as deep-rooted as the 
love of children, and one of the epidemics of pil- 
grimage that occur periodically burst out in 
France about 1585, so Busbecq writes. Whole 
villages of people clothed themselves in white 
linen, took crosses and went off to some shrine 
two or three days' journey away. The special 
cause of this epidemic may perhaps be sought in 
the pilgrimage to Our Lady of Chartres by their 
queen, in 1582, to beg for relief from her barren- 
ness. One incident of this journey ought not to 
be left buried in the Calendar of Foreign State 
Papers, the only place where it has hitherto been 
printed. On being told why the queen was going 
thither, a countrywoman said, "Alas! Madame 
is too late; the good priest who used to make the 
children has just died." 

An example of the pilgrim we have already met 
in Delia Valle. Bartholomew Sastrow in his auto- 
biography reveals a man travelling in search of 
work, a very unpleasant man, perhaps, but so 
strikingly true a picture of the every-day life and 
every-day thought of a lower middle-class man of 



Some of the "Tourists 21 

the sixteenth century as not to be surpassed for 
any other century, past, present, or future, not 
even among autobiographies. 

But for the man who is trying to avoid work, 
the third of the mediaeval types, the vagabond, 
it would be out of place to select an individual to 
stand for the class in Renascence days, seeing that 
it became a stock literary type; vagabondage in 
general being epitomized for the time in the Span- 
ish picaro. The picaro was one who saw much of 
the seamy side of life and remembered it with 
pleasure — it was all life and the true picaro was 
in love with life. The only enemy he had perma- 
nently was civilisation; yet he and it became recon- 
ciled in his old age : a picaro who grew old ceased 
to be a picaro. Meanwhile he was always forgiv- 
ing civilisation, and being forgiven; both had 
equal need of forgiveness. Yet there is one picaro 
characteristic hard to overlook — his passion for 
being dull at great length when he drops into 
print: Lazarillo de Tormes and Gil Bias being the 
only ones of whom it may be said that from a 
reader's standpoint they were all that they should 
have been and nothing that they should not. The 
rest, when met between the covers of a book, re- 
semble the parson whom one of themselves, 
Quevedo's Pablos, caught up on the way to Ma- 
drid and whom he hardly prevented from reciting 
his verses on St. Ursula and her eleven thousand 
virgins, fifty octavetts to each virgin; even then 



22 "Touring in 1600 

he could not escape a comedy containing more 
scenes than there were days in a Jerusalem pil- 
grimage, besides five quires concerning Noah's 
Ark. This same Pablos explains incidentally 
what his kind talked about to chance companions 
on the road, for meeting another making for Se- 
govia they fell into "la conversacion propia de 
picaros." Whether the Turk was on the downhill 
and how strong was the king: how the Holy Land 
might be reconquered, and likewise Algiers : party 
politics were then discussed and afterwards the 
management of the rebellious Low Countries. 
There were, too, picaros of high degree, but these 
were all men of war, whereas nothing but hunger 
made an ordinary picaro fight. High and low, 
however, had this in common, that they preferred 
living at others' expense to working, and conse- 
quently shifted their lodgings as often as any 
other class of tourist, in deference to local opinion. 
Of the fourth mediaeval type, the knight- 
errant, it is hard to say whether it was extinct or 
not : all depends on the extent to which the knight- 
errant is idealised. It is certainly true in this de- 
gree, that contemporary fiction must be reckoned 
as a cause of travel. Don Quixote is not to be 
ignored as a traveller and he was not alone. The 
first Earl of Cork's eldest son was so affected by 
the romances that the "roving wildness of his 
thoughts " which they brought about was only par- 
tially cured by continual extraction of square and 



THE CHEAPEST WAY 

" Les Bohemiens" (no. i) by Jacques Callot (15Q4-1635). The 
artist ran away from home to Italy when a youngster and fell in with 
company of this kind on the road. The second state (1633; British 
Museum) has been reproduced in preference to the first as being in no 
way inferior and having the advantage of the verses appended to 
them by another traveller of the time, the Abbe de Marolles. 



. 


,^ 














2 j. 




) 




Some of the 'Tourists 23 

cube roots. But perhaps the knight-errant of this 
date is better identified with the picaro of high de- 
gree, and as such the class may be exemplified by- 
Don Alonzo de Guzman, the first chapter of whose 
autobiography gives a better insight into the 
psychology, and life on the road, of the picaro 
than the whole flood of nineteenth-century com- 
ment on the subject. At the age of eighteen he 
found himself with no father, no money, and a 
mother pious but talkative; after having provided 
for his needs for a while by marriage, he left home 
with a horse, a mule, a bed, and sixty ducats. And 
though what follows belongs more to the history 
of lying than the history of the world, it throws 
side-lights. And at any rate, any excuse is good 
enough to turn to it, for Don Alonzo has much in 
common with Benvenuto Cellini. 

Now we have passed beyond the mediaeval 
types and come to such as are somewhat more 
prominent in this, than in the previous, centuries. 
Exiles, for instance. The economic changes that 
took place during the sixteenth century made it 
increasingly difficult for the equivalents for Chan- 
cellors of the Exchequer to meet the yearly de- 
ficits. The legal authorities were therefore called 
upon to assist, and a working arrangement was 
established in practically all European countries 
whereby the political ferment of the time was 
taken advantage of for the betterment of the 
finances. Instead of the slow process and meagre 



24 Touring in 1600 

results of waiting for death-duties, a man of 
wealth suffered premature civil death, or was har- 
ried into civil suicide. He was exiled, or fled: he 
had become a tourist. 

Inseparable from political is religious self-exile. 
What happened very often in England was this. 
A youngster is seized with that belief in the likeli- 
hood of an ideal life elsewhere and that desire for 
a change, which are characteristic of the age of 
twenty. The theological cast of the age gives the 
former a religious bias. He escapes. After a time 
it seems to him that human characteristics have 
the upper hand of the apostolic, even in Roman 
Catholics, to a greater extent than he once be- 
lieved, and that he would like to go home. He 
lands, is questioned by the Mayor, reported on to 
the Privy Council, in which report his experi- 
ences are to be found summarised. 

One class of men, however, which might be ex- 
pected to provide many examples, is for the most 
part absent, — missionaries, — occupied at home 
converting each other at this date, or re-con- 
verting themselves. The chief, in fact, the Jesuits, 
were confined each one to his nation by order, and 
only in respect of their early training days do they 
appear as foreigners abroad. Acknowledgements 
are due, on the other hand, for information re- 
ceived, to captives set free, soldiers, artists, herb- 
alists, antiquaries, and even to those who, so far 
as we know, only looked on, like Shakespeare; and 



Some of the Tourists 25 

to many others led abroad by special reasons, such 
as the Italian MarquisVho felt it necessary for him 
to have a long holiday after the privations of Lent. 
But with all these varieties of tourist, we still 
have not come to the Average Tourist. The type 
is extinct, killed by reference-books, telegraphy, 
and democracy. For the Average Tourist left his 
fatherland to get information which he could not 
get at home, and he wanted this information be- 
cause he was a junior member of the aristocracy, 
at that time the governing class more exclusively 
than at present. In feudal days isolation was, 
comparatively, taken for granted, and the fact of 
that voluntary isolation implied many hindrances 
to touring. The need of acquiring information of 
every kind that affected political action had been 
therefore less realised and the difficulty of acquir- 
ing it greater. These years near 1600 are the 
years of transition, transition to a custom for 
travellers to 

. . . seek their place through storms, 
In passing many seas for many forms 
Of foreign government, endure the pain 
Of many faces seeing, and the gain 
That strangers make of their strange-loving humours: 
Learn tongues; keep note-books; all to feed the tumours 
Of vain discourse at home, or serve the course 
Of state employment . . . 5 

Herein lies the unity of subject of this book; not 
in its concern with a given class of experiences 



26 Touring in 1600 

during a given period. Roughly speaking, in the 
two half-centuries preceding and succeeding the 
year 1600, the practice of the upper classes of 
sending sons abroad as part of their education be- 
came successively an experiment, a custom, and, 
finally, a system. By the middle of the seven- 
teenth century this system had become a thor- 
oughly set system, and the "Grand Tour" a topic 
for hack-writers. Of the latter, James Howell was 
the first. His "Instructions for Foreign Travel" 
(1642) may serve to date the beginning of "Grand 
Touring" in the modern sense of the phrase, while 
the publication of Andrew Boorde's "Introduc- 
tion of Knowledge" a century earlier, does the 
same for this preceding period, that of the devel- 
opment of travel as a means of education. 

Delimiting the movement by means of English 
books suggests that it was a merely English move- 
ment, but it was in fact European, though true of 
the different countries in varying degrees. The 
increase of diplomatic journeys, 6 already men- 
tioned, the core of this development and its chief 
instrument, was common to all divisions of Eu- 
rope in proportion to the degree of the civilisation 
attained. In the Empire and Poland the custom 
grew up less suddenly; it had begun earlier. In 
Italy, it began later, since it was not till later that 
there was much for an Italian to learn that he 
could not learn better at home. Sir Henry Wotton 7 
noted in 1603 that travelling was coming into 



Some of the Tourists 27 

fashion among the young nobles of Venice. In 
France, an early beginning was broken off by the 
civil wars, not to start afresh till Henry IV's 
sovereignty was established. As for Spaniards and 
Portuguese, they alone had dominions over-sea to 
attend to. 

In England, on the other hand, political rever- 
sals being at once frequent, thorough, and peace- 
able, migrations were very common and usually 
short. That touring would result from migration 
was certain, because it familiarised English people 
with the attractions and the affairs of the conti- 
nent and with the uses of that familiarity, and 
established communications. Other special causes 
existed, too, truisms concerning which are so plen- 
tiful that there is no need to repeat them here. 

But the certainty of the change did not prevent 
it being slow. Andrew Boorde, who knew Europe 
thoroughly, found hardly any of his countrymen 
abroad except students and merchants, and for the 
following half century it is the tendency rather 
than the fact that may be noted, as indicated, for 
example, by Sir Philip Sidney, who started in 1572, 
writing later to his brother that "a great number 
of us never thought in ourselves why we went, 
but a certain tickling humour to do as other 
men had done." In 1578 Florio could still write in 
one of his Italian-English dialogues published in 
London: 8 " 'Englishmen, go they through the 
world?' 'Yea some, but few.'" Yet in 1592 and 



28 'Touring in 1600 

again in 1595 the Pope complained about the 
number of English heretics allowed at Venice, 9 
and in 161 5 an Englishman, George Sandys, leaves 
out of his travel-book everything relating to 
places north of Venice, such being, he says, "daily 
surveyed and exactly related." Three years ear- 
lier James I's Ambassador at Venice writes 10 to the 
Doge that there are more than seventy English in 
Venice whereas "formerly" there had been four or 
five; and when he adds that there are not more 
than ten in the rest of Italy it must be remem- 
bered that he is making out a case and even 
then refers to Protestants only: between 1579 and 
1603, three hundred and fifty Englishmen had 
been received into the English College at Rome. 11 
The development, then, of the English tourist 
may be synchronised with the rise of the English 
Drama and the expansion of English Commerce. 
In other words, the preparation for it came before 
the failure of the Spanish Armada; the actuality 
directly afterwards. But it could not have fol- 
lowed the course it did except in conjunction with 
wider causes, which emphasise its place as but 
part of a European movement. These may be 
sought in (1) the slight, but definite, advance in 
civilisation which made people more accessible to 
the ideas which peace fosters; (2) the greater area 
over which peace prevailed round about the year 
1600: (3) the increase in centralisation in govern- 
ment, which decreased the obstacles in the way of 



Some of the Tourists 29 

the traveller, and increased the attractiveness of 
particular points, i e., where the courts were held. 

At the same time the increase in touring which 
really took place would be greatly over-estimated 
if one considered the evidence of bibliography as 
all-sufficient. Almost all that the latter proves is 
an increase in writing about it, due to the greatly 
increased demand for the written word which was 
the outcome of printing. Morelli, in his essay 12 on 
little-known Venetian travellers, quotes GiosafTate 
Barbara as writing in 1487, "I have experienced 
and seen much that would probably be accounted 
rubbish by those who have, so to speak, never 
been outside Venice, by reason that such things 
are not customary there. And this has been the 
chief reason for my never having cared to write of 
what I have seen, nor even to speak much thereof." 
Yet by 1600 there were probably few countries in 
Europe in which recent accounts of the regions 
visited by Barbara could not be read in the verna- 
cular, accounts out of which some one expected to 
see a profit. Indications, on the contrary, of enor- 
mous numbers leaving home may be found in this 
one fact; that the names are known of twelve hun- 
dred Germans who passed beyond the limits of 
civilised Christendom during the sixteenth cen- 
tury. 13 What must then be the number of Euro- 
peans, ascertainable and otherwise, who were 
going about Europe then? 

As regards the Average Tourist, however, we 



3o louring in 1600 

are not left to our imagination. He is often to be 
found in person, young, rich, abroad to learn. Yet 
— why should he, rather than his contemporaries 
of the lower classes, need teaching? The answer 
will come of its own accord if we stop to consider 
the similarities and divergences existent between 
the Jesuits and the Salvation Army. Both are the 
outcome of the same form of human energy, that 
of Christianity militant against present-day evils; 
it is circumstances that have caused the diver- 
gence. The Jesuits were as keen at first for social 
reform as the Salvation Army have become; the 
Salvation Army used to be as much preoccupied 
with theology as the Jesuits. In details the resem- 
blance is more picturesque without being any 
more accidental. The Salvation Army describe 
themselves after the fashion of the Papal title of 
"servus servorum Dei," as the "servants of all"; 
and the first thing that Loyola did when his asso- 
ciates insisted on his adopting the same title that 
"General" Booth has assumed, was to go down- 
stairs and do the cooking. The two societies with 
one and the same root-idea essentially, have been 
drawn into ministering to the lower class in the 
nineteenth century and the upper class three hun- 
dred years earlier: the identity of spirit consisting 
in the class that was ministered to being that 
which possessed the greatest potentialities and the 
greatest needs. 14 And in all the prescribed occupa- 
tions of the Average Tourist we shall find this 



Some of the "Tourists 3 1 

implied, that the future of his country depended 
on the use he made of his tour. 

Let us take two specimens; one in the rough, 
the other in the finished, state: No. I shall be 
John Lauder of Fountainhall; No. 2, the Due 
de Rohan. The former's diary is not to be 
equalled for the insight it gives into the devel- 
opment of the mind of the fledgling-dignitary 
abroad; not a pleasant picture always, not the 
evolution of a mother's treasure into an omni- 
scient angel, but of a male Scot of nineteen into the 
early stages of a man of this wicked world; but — 
it happened. We note his language becoming de- 
cidedly coarser and an introduction to Rabelais' 
works not improving matters. Still, the former 
would have happened at home, only in a narrower 
circle; and for Rabelais, who that has read him 
does not know the other side? Then, he did not 
always work as a good boy should : he was study- 
ing law at Poictiers, and a German who was there 
twenty years earlier tells us that at Poictiers there 
were so many students that those who wanted to 
work retired to the neighbouring St. Jean d'Angely. 
Lauder stopped at Poictiers and writes, "I was 
beginning to make many acquaintances at Poic- 
tiers, to go in and drink with them, as," — then fol- 
low several names, then a note by the editor that 
twenty-seven lines have been erased in the MS. 
It continues: "I was beginning to fall very idle." 
Later on: "I took up to drink with me M. de la 



3 2 "Touring in 1600 

Porte, de Gruche, de Gey, de Gaule, Baranton's 
brother, etc."; [twenty-two lines erased] "on my 
wakening in the morning I found my head sore 
with the wine I had drunk." Even if one was 
wrong-headed enough to agree with what the min- 
ister at Fountainhall would feel obliged to re- 
mark about such occurrences, nothing could coun- 
terbalance the advantage to a Scot of learning 
that the Scottish opinion of Scots was not univer- 
sally accepted. Lauder is surprised, genuinely hu- 
miliated, to find his countrymen despised abroad 
for the iconoclasm that accompanied their "con- 



version." 



Lauder wrote a diary: the Due de Rohan a "let- 
ter" to his mother, summarising the valuable in- 
formation acquired in a virtuous perambulation 
through Italy, Hungary, Bohemia, Germany, the 
Low Countries, England, including a flying visit 
to Scotland; an harangue of flat mediocrity, imi- 
tative in character, thoughtful only in so far as, 
and in the way, he had been taught to be thought- 
ful. But, read between the lines, it is most inter- 
esting; better representing the Average Tourist in 
his nominal every-day state of mind than any 
other book. He embodies the sayings and doings 
of hundreds of others whose only memorials are on 
tombstones or in genealogies; he endures the inns 
in silence; never ate nor drank nor saw a coin or a 
poor man, for aught he says; passed the country 
in haste, ignoring the scenery except where " clas- 



Some of the Tourists 33 

sical" authors had praised it, considered the 
Alps a nuisance, and democratic governments a 
degraded, albeit successful, eccentricity; and hast- 
ened past the Lago di Garda, in spite of the 
new fortress in building there, to Brescia, the lat- 
ter being "better worth seeing." It was just 1600 
when he travelled, and the ideas of the year are 
reflected in his opening lines with an exactitude 
possible only to one who has the mind of his con- 
temporaries and none of his own. "Peace having 
been made, I saw I could not be any use in France." 
So he employed his idleness in attempting to 
learn something, in noting the differences in coun- 
tries and peoples. Yet he would not be the Aver- 
age Tourist made perfect that he is if there was not 
some idea of the future hovering in him — he is 
the only traveller, except Sir Henry Blount, the 
philosopher, who notes, or even seems to note, 
that the chief factor of differences between human 
being and human being is geography. 

Yet underneath all the special characteristics 
which distinguish every one of these tourists from 
every other, there remains one that all share with 
each other and with us, that expressed with the 
crude controversial Elizabethan vigour in some 
lines which Thomas Nashe wrote towards the 
close of the sixteenth century — "'Countryman, 
tell me what is the occasion of thy straying so 
far . . . to visit this strange nation?' . . . 'That 
which was the Israelites' curse we . . . count our 



34 Touring in 1600 

chief blessedness: he is nobody that hath not 
travelled' " — the sense of the inexhaustible plea- 
sure of travel. Had it been otherwise they would 
not have cared to write down their experiences ; nor 
we to read them. And if at times it is hard to find 
a reflection of their pleasure in what they have 
written, it is certainly there, if only between the 
lines, manifesting how this continual variety of 
human beings is brought into touch, even if un- 
consciously, with the infinite change and range of 
the ideas and efforts of millions of persons over 
millions upon millions of acres, each person and each 
acre with its own history, life, fate, and influence. If, 
too, in the course of summarising what they ex- 
perienced, the more trivial details seem to occupy 
a larger proportion of the space than is their due, 
it may be suggested that that is the proportion 
in which they appear in the tourists' reminis- 
cences. 

The permanent undercurrent I have tried to 
suggest where circumstances bring it to the sur- 
face in some one of its more definite forms. 



CHAPTER II 

GUIDE-BOOKS AND GUIDES 

Now resteth in my memory but this point, which indeed is the 
chief to you of all others; which is, the choice of what men you 
are to direct yourself to; for it is certain no vessel can leave a 
worse taste in the liquor it contains, than a wrong teacher infects 
an unskilful hearer with that which will hardly ever out. 

Sir Philip Sidney's advice to his brother 
(about 1578). 

FROM what has been said already, two 
conclusions may be drawn: first, that the 
Average Tourist was given much advice; 
secondly, that he did not take it. Let us too, 
then, see the theory for one chapter only; and, 
in all chapters after, the practice. 

It must have amused many a youngster to hear 
the down-trodden old gentleman, whom his fa- 
ther had hired, setting forth how the said young- 
ster must behave in wicked Italy if he was to grow 
up in favour with God and man; all the more so 
if the old gentleman, whose name, perhaps, was 
the local equivalent for John Smith, published his 
advice in Latin under a Latin pseudonym, say, 
Gruberus or Plotius. Gruberus and Plotius sug- 
gest themselves because they are the very guidiest 
of guide-book writers. They, like all the orthodox 
of their kind, begin by a solemn argument for 
and against travelling. They bring up to support 



36 "Touring in 1600 

them a most miscellaneous host: the Prophets, the 
Apostles, Daedalus, Ulysses, the Queen of Sheba, 
Theseus, Anacharsis, the "Church of Christ," 
Pythagoras, Plato, Abraham, Aristotle, Apollo- 
nius of Tyana, Euclid, Zamolxis, Lycurgus, 
Naomi, Cicero, Galen, Dioscorides, him who trav- 
elled from farthest Spain to see Livy ("and im- 
mediately," as some one most unkindly says, "im- 
mediately he saw him, went away"); Solon also 
and St. Paul, and M ithridates, the Roman Decem- 
viri, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Pausanias, Cluve- 
rius, Moses, Orpheus, Draco, Minos, Rhadaman- 
thus, iEsculapius, Hippocrates, Avicenna, the 
physicians of Egypt and the gods of Greece. But 
there is not a word about Jonah ; perhaps his luck 
and experiences were considered abnormal; or per- 
haps because, as Howell says, "he travelled much, 
but saw little." 

Then there are those who have to be refuted or 
explained away: Socrates, Seneca, the Lacedae- 
monians, Athenians, Chinese, Muscovites, Pso- 
phidius, Elianus, and Pompeius Laetus. Cain, 
also, the first traveller, creates a prejudice. Like- 
wise, the argument from experience has to be met. 
Some return from travel, they say, using phrases 
without meaning, pale, lean, scabby and worm- 
eaten, burdens on their consciences, astounding 
garments on their backs, with the manners of an 
actor and superciliously stupid. Yet is this not 
due to the thing itself, but to the abuse thereof; 



Guide-Books and Guides 3 7 

peradventure he shall be corrupted more quickly 
at home than abroad, and there is less to be feared 
from universities and strange lands than from the 
indulgent mother. Moreover "non nobiliora quam 
mobiliora"; the heavens rejoice in motion, and 
transplantation yieldeth new life to plants. And 
shall the little sparrow travel as he pleases and 
man, lord of the animals, be confined to a farm or 
a hamlet? 

Reason, erudition and emotion having thus 
conquered, instruction begins. The forethought 
necessary is as great as if he were choosing a wife. 
For tutors and horses, it seems, the most that can 
be expected from them is that they shall not im- 
peril his soul and body respectively. First among 
requisites is a book of prayers and hymns effective 
for salvation without being so pugnacious, doc- 
trinally, as to cause suspicion. Next, a note-book, 
a watch, or a pocket sun-dial; if a watch, not a 
striker, for that warns the wicked you have cash; 
a broad-brimmed hat, gaiters, boots, breeches (as 
if his friends would let him start without any!), 
gloves, shoes, shirts, handkerchiefs, "which come 
in useful when you perspire " ; and if he cannot take 
many shirts, let those he takes be washed, he will 
find it more comfortable. Also, a linen overall, to 
put over his clothes when he gets into bed, in case 
the bed is dirty. Let him get to know something 
of medicine and, "like Achilles, " learn to cook 
before he leaves home. Travel not at night, and, 



38 "Touring in 1600 

in daytime, be guarded by the official guards 
which German and Belgian towns provide; or 
travel in company. 

Now, the aim of travelling is the acquisition of 
knowledge; stay, therefore, in the more famous 
places rather than keep on the move. Enquire, 
concerning the district, its names, past and pre- 
sent; its language; its situation; measurements; 
number of towns, or villages; its climate, fertility; 
whether maritime or not, and possessing forests, 
mountains, barren or wooded; wild beasts, profit- 
able mines; animal or vegetable life peculiar to 
itself; navigable or fish-yielding rivers; medicinal 
baths; efficient fortresses. And concerning towns: 
the founder," sights," free or otherwise; what the 
town has undergone, famines, plagues, floods, 
fires, sieges, revolutions, sackings; whether it has 
been the scene of councils, conferences, synods, 
assemblies, gatherings, or tournaments. 

It should be mentioned that in this last para- 
graph I am paraphrasing Gruberus only, and 
presume he is confining himself to what the young 
tourist should discover before breakfast; other- 
wise he is but a superficial instructor compared to 
Plotius. The latter draws up a series of questions, 
which include enquiries about weights and mea- 
sures; about the clergy, how many and what sal- 
aries; religion, is it "reformed"? if so, what has 
happened to monks and nuns; how often Com- 
munion is administered; and whether strangers 



Guide-Books and Guides 39 

are received thereat; arrangements for burial. 
This last question would seem more in place at the 
end, but it is only number thirty-six, and there 
are one hundred and seventeen questions alto- 
gether. Then, is there a University? and, if so, 
may the rector whack the students ? and concern- 
ing the professors, what they teach and what they 
are paid. As for local government, the enquiries 
exhaust possibilities. Also, how many houses; and 
what about night-watchmen; legal procedure; 
"ancient lights," the right to use water, execu- 
tors' duties, grounds for divorce, dress, military 
training? Furthermore: are the roads clean, and 
can children marry without their parents' consent? 
concerning methods of cookery, and antiquity of 
the town; whether the position of an officer of jus- 
tice is a respected one or not; concerning notaries 
public; and whether the water used in cooking 
comes from river, fountain, well, or rain; how 
many varieties of grain are used in bread-making; 
and what means have they for dealing with fires ; 
their sanitary arrangements and public holidays, 
with the reasons for the latter; care of paupers, 
orphans, and lepers; what punishments for what 
crimes. 

It must not be imagined that Gruberus and 
Plotius thought of all this by themselves: they 
copied others, being but two among many. Where 
the copying reached its most uncritical extreme 
was in the origins ascribed to towns: Paris, the 



4o Touring in 1600 

guide-books say, was founded by a Gaul of that 
name who lived two hundred years before his 
namesake of Troy; Haarlem is also named after 
its founder "Herr (i.e., Mr.) Lem"; Toulouse 
dated from the time of the prophetess Deborah; 
and so on. 

But to consider the foregoing instructions, and 
even these three "facts," on their humorous side 
only, is to miss much of their interest. Two, for 
instance, of these etymologies are but examples of 
what is not only continually coming into notice 
in books of this date, but is especially noticeable 
in guide-books and tourists' notes, in which latter 
the habit of mind of the time is more exactly mir- 
rored in its daily attitude than in any other class 
of books. They exemplify the two sources of 
knowledge of antiquity, the two standards of com- 
parison, then available: classical and biblical; of 
more nearly equal authority than they were be- 
fore or have been since ; and they were the only 
ones. So with the objects of enquiry: they are im- 
plied by that lack of reference books from which 
not only the tourist, but governments also, suf- 
fered; it is clear, for example, that in 1592 much 
elementary information was not at hand, even in 
manuscript, in England. 1 The Tsar, moreover, 
about this time addressed a letter to the ' 'Gover- 
nor of the High Signiory of Venice, " his advisers 
thinking that Venice was governed by a nominee 
of the Pope; and Rivadeneyra, who was very well- 



Guide-Books and Guides 4 i 

informed about affairs English, says in his "Cisma 
de Inglaterra," written thirty years after the re- 
form of the English currency under Elizabeth: 
"The gold and silver currency is not so pure nor 
so fine as it was before heresy entered into the 
kingdom, for in the time of Henry VIII and his 
children Edward and Elizabeth, it has been falsi- 
fied and alloyed with other metals, and so the 
money is worth much less than it used to be." 
Camden again, who wrote his Annals of Eliza- 
beth's Reign early in the next century to correct 
misconceptions to which foreign scholars were 
liable, thought it necessary, when he mentioned 
Dublin, to explain that it was the chief city of 
Ireland; and very reasonably, too, considering 
that one of Henry VIII's officials in Ireland wrote 
home: "Because the country called Leinster and 
the situation thereof is unknown to the King and 
his Council, it is to be understood that Leinster 
is the fifth part of Ireland." 2 And there was a 
certain gentleman at the court of King James I, 
supposed to be an authority on things Continental, 
who answered, when asked for information about 
Venice, that he could not give much because he 
had ridden post through it — and it was not till the 
questioner got there that he became aware that 
Venice was surrounded by water; just as the secre- 
tary of a Spanish duke in England writes that his 
master took ship from "Calais, because, England 
being an island, it cannot be approached by land." 



42 'Touring in 1600 

It may perhaps seem that the absence of know- 
ledge which is ordinary now, indicated by the 
above illustrations, was extraordinary rather than 
ordinary even then. But the fact was that, be- 
sides the available books being practically always 
too much behind the times for any but antiqua- 
ries' purposes, the writers themselves had so 
little information at hand that it was only here 
and there their writings were anything but hope- 
lessly superficial, even when obtained; and to 
obtain them was no easy matter. There were at 
least three men who published practical hand- 
books in English for Continental travelling later 
than Andrew Boorde and earlier than Howell; 
yet they, and Howell also, each claim that theirs 
is the first book of its kind in English. Whether 
the statement is made in good faith, or for busi- 
ness purposes, it proves equally well that even 
if a book was written, it was not easy to find. 

Or again, take a book which was so often re- 
published as to be easy to obtain, the " Viaggio da 
Venetia al Santo Sepolcro," for instance, the au- 
thorship of the later editions of which is ascribed 
to one Father Noe, a Franciscan. The first edi- 
tion seems to be that of 1500, and it continued to 
be reprinted down to 1781 ; at least thirty-four edi- 
tions came out before 1640, when the period under 
consideration ends. It was not, however, an Ital- 
ian book originally, having been translated from 
a German source which was in existence as early 



Guide-Books and Guides 43 

as 1465, if not earlier. 3 Since, therefore, its in- 
formation was never thoroughly revised, at any 
rate, not before 1640, sixteenth-century and seven- 
teenth-century pilgrims went on buying mid-nf- 
teenth-century information. They were recom- 
mended, for instance, to go by the pilgrim galley, 
which ceased to run about 1586; and also to take 
part in a festival held yearly on the banks of the 
Jordan at Epiphany, which must have been aban- 
doned far earlier even than that. 

Still, books about what there was to notice in 
given places did exist just as there were treatises 
of the Gruberus and Plotius kind unfolding what 
should be noticed in general, and why. Best 
known of the earlier kind was Miinster's gigantic 
"Cosmography," which Montaigne regretted he 
had not brought with him; and by the middle of 
the seventeenth century several other first-rate 
geographers, besides minor men, had compiled 
books of the kind. But the bearing of such books 
on our subject is only in so far as they reflect the 
thoughts, and ministered to the needs, of the 
tourist; and they may therefore be best consid- 
ered in the works of those who wrote "Itinera- 
ries, " which not only recorded journeys but were 
meant to serve as examples of how a journey 
might be made the most of. Such a book was 
Hentzner's, a sort of link between Gruberus and 
Fynes Moryson. Hentzner was a Silesian who 
acted as guide and tutor to a young nobleman 



44 'Touring in 1600 

from 1596 to 1600. They began, and ended, their 
journey at Breslau, and toured through Germany, 
France, Switzerland, Italy, and England; the 
"Itineraria" being based on notes made by the 
way. His account of England does him rather 
more than justice, for there is some first-hand 
experience there, which is just what is lacking 
in the rest of his book. Practically everything 
he says is second-hand, and the fact of his being 
at a place is merely a peg to hang quotations on. 
When he is not quoting from books he seems to 
be quoting from people; and half of what we 
expect from a guide-book is absent: means of 
conveyance, for instance. This is an omission, 
however, which can be explained: he was only 
concerned with the most respectable form of 
travelling, and that meant, on horseback. And 
the rest of his omissions, taken all together, throw 
into relief the academic character of the book, 
due, not to himself individually so much as to 
the period. His preface cannot, naturally, differ 
much from Plotius, nor add much, except in 
recommending Psalms 91, 126, 127, and 139 as 
suitable for use by those about to travel, forget- 
ting, it would seem, the one beginning, "When 
Israel went forth out of Egypt," which Panta- 
gruel had sung by his crew before they set out to 
find the "Holy Bottle"; and being a Protestant 
he cannot recommend the invocation of St. 
Joseph and St. Anthony of Padua, the patron 



Guide-Books and Guides 45 

saints of travellers ; all he can do is to pray at the 
beginning for good angels to guard his footsteps, 
and, at the end, to acknowledge assistance from 
one, although it does not appear that he ever 
went to the length of Uhland's traveller: — 

Take, boatman, thrice thy fee, — 

Take, I give it willingly; 

For, invisible to thee, 

Spirits twain have crossed with me, 

and paid a fare for the good angel. On the way, 
having reached, say Rome, he does not, in 
Baedeker's merciful fashion, tell you the hotels 
first, in order of merit, but begins straightway: 
"Rome. Mistress and Queen of Cities, in times 
past the head of well-nigh all the world, which she 
had subjected to her rule by virtue of the sublime 
deeds of the most stout-hearted of men. Concern- 
ing the first founders thereof there are as many 
opinions, and as different, as there are writers. 
Some there are who think that Evander, in his 
flight from Arcadia," etc. Yet no one could write 
over six hundred pages about a four years' tour 
in sixteenth-century Europe without being valu- 
able at times; partly in relation to ideas, partly 
to experiences into which those ideas led him and 
his pupils. 

It was less than twenty years after Hentzner 
that another German published a record of travel 
which was also meant as a guide. But time had 
worked wonders; it was not only a personal differ- 



46 Touring in 1600 

ence between the former and Zinzerling that 
accounts for the difference in their books; it was 
the increase in the number of tourists. The latter 
sketches out a plan by means of which all France 
can be seen at the most convenient times and most 
thoroughly without waste of time, with excur- 
sions to England, the Low Countries, and Spain. 
Routes are his first consideration; other hints 
abound. At St. Nicholas is a host who is a terror 
to strangers; and remember that at Saint-Savin, 
thirty leagues from Bourges, is the shanty of 
"Philemon and Baucis" where you can live for 
next to nothing; and that outside the gate at 
Poictiers is a chemist who speaks German, and so 
on. Frequently, indeed, he notes where you may 
find your German understood; and also where 
you should learn, and where avoid learning, 
French. 

Advice of this last-mentioned kind calls to 
mind a third class of guide-books, intended to 
assist those who, without them, would realise 
how vain is the help of man when he can't under- 
stand what you say. The need for such became 
more and more evident as time went on and 
Latin became less and less the living and inter- 
national language it had been but recently. The 
use of vernaculars was everywhere coming to the 
front as nationalities developed further, and in 
many districts where it had been best known its 
disuse in Church hastened its disuse outside. 



Guide-Books and Guides 47 

The extent to which Latin was current about 
1600 varied in almost every country. Poland and 
Ireland came first, Germany second, where many 
of all classes spoke it fluently, and less corruptly 
than in Poland. Yet an Englishman 4 passing 
through Germany in 1655 found but one inn- 
keeper who could speak it. The date suggests 
that the Thirty Years' War was responsible for 
the change. It is certainly true that France in 
the previous half century was far behind Ger- 
many in the matter of speaking Latin, as a result 
of the civil wars there. Possibly the characters 
of its rulers had something to do with this too, 
just as in England, where Latin was ordinarily 
spoken by the upper classes, according to Mory- 
son, with ease and correctness, the accomplish- 
ments of Queen Elizabeth as a linguist had doubt- 
less set a fashion. This much, at least, is certain: 
that in 1597 when an ambassador from Poland 
was unexpectedly insolent in his oration, the 
Queen dumbfounded him by replying on the spot 
with as excellent Latinity as spirit, whereas at 
Paris once, when a Latin oration was expected 
from another ambassador, not only could not the 
King reply, but not even any one at court. With 
Montaigne the case was certainly different, but 
then his father had had him taught Latin before 
French, and consequently, on his travels, so soon 
as he reached a stopping-place, he introduced 
himself to the local priest, and though neither 



48 "Touring in 1600 

knew the other's native language, they passed 
their evening conversing without difficulty. 

Very many were the interesting interviews that 
many a tourist had which he owed to a knowledge 
of Latin; the extent to which knowledge was ac- 
quired orally^having led to its being an ordinary 
incident in the life of the tourist to pay a call on 
the learned man of the district; a duty with the 
Average Tourist, a pleasure for the others. And 
Latin was the invariable medium, part of the 
respectability of the occasion. At least, not quite 
invariable: when the historian De Thou visited 
the great Sigonius, they talked Italian, because 
the latter, in spite of a lifetime spent in becoming 
the chief authority on Roman Italy, spoke Latin 
with difficulty. 

It seems curious that Latin should have been 
less generally understood south, than north, of 
the Alps, but such was the fact. Italy was, how- 
ever, ahead of Spain, where even an acquaintance 
with Latin was rare. In the first quarter of the 
sixteenth century Navagero found Alcala the 
only university where lectures were delivered in 
Latin, and, according to the best of the guide- 
book writers on Spain, Zeiler, the doctorate at 
Salamanca could be obtained, early in the seven- 
teenth century, without any knowledge of Latin 
at all; while it has been shown by M. Cirot, the 
biographer of Mariana, that the latter's great 
history of Spain, published in Latin at this time, 



Guide-Books and Guides 49 

and as successful as a book of the kind ever is in 
its own day, was unsaleable until translated into 
Spanish. 

Among those, too, who did know Latin there 
was the barrier of differing pronunciation. Lauder 
of Fountainhall was very much at sea to begin 
with, in spite of his Scotch pronunciation being 
much nearer to the French than an Englishman's 
would have been, and there is an anecdote in 
Vicente Espinel's "Marcos de Obregon" which 
is to the point here. The latter is a novel, it is 
true, but the tradition that it is semi-autobio- 
graphical is borne out by many of its tales reading 
as if they were actual experiences, of which the 
following is one. One day, the hero, a Spaniard, 
found himself in a boat on the river Po, with a 
German, an Italian, and a Frenchman, and to 
pass the time they tried to talk Latin so that all 
could understand each one; but they soon aban- 
doned the plan, as the pronunciations varied too 
greatly. 

Nevertheless, the passing of Latin out of Eu- 
ropean conversation is to be attributed rather 
to the growth of Italian, and later of French, as 
international tongues. Gaspar Ens, who wrote a 
series of guides to nearly every part of Europe, 
says in his preface to the volume on France, "At 
this day their language is so much used in almost 
every part of the world that whosoever is un- 
skilled therein is deemed a yokel." This was in 



so "Touring in 1600 

1609, at which date, or soon after, it was as true 
as a general statement can be expected to be; 
just as much so as the assertion in the preface 
to an English book in 1578: "Once every one knew 
Latin . . . now the Italian is as widely spread." 8 

It was only in the north that French came to 
rival Italian during this period, for the "lingua 
franca," also known as "franco piccolo," the 
hybrid tongue in which commerce was conducted 
along the shores of the Mediterranean, was so 
largely Italian that to the average Britisher, from 
whom Hakluyt drew his narratives, the two were 
indistinguishable; but an Italian would notice, as 
Delia Valle did, that no form of a verb but the 
infinitive was used. If any one was met who knew 
more than two languages, he would oftenest be 
a Jew, who usually knew Spanish and Portuguese; 
the latter because the tribe of Judah, from which 
their deliverer was to come, was supposed to be 
domiciled in Portugal. 

Another hybrid language, as well established 
in its own area as the "lingua franca," was Scot- 
French, so constantly in use as to have an exist- 
ence as a literary dialect as well as in French 
burlesque. These mixed languages have no place 
in the ordinary book-guide to languages, but 
were left to personal tuition; yet in the lists of 
the most common phrases which Andrew Boorde 
appends to each of his descriptions of countries 
may be noted a curious instance from this border- 



Guide-Books and Guides 5 1 

land of philology. In both the Italian and the 
Spanish lists he renders "How do you fare?" 
by "Quo modo stat cum vostro corps?" 

While we are on this subject we may stop to 
sympathise with awkward misunderstandings like 
that of the Jesuit Possevino at Moscow, when 
invited to (Orthodox) Mass ("obednia") with 
intent to compromise him; he went, thinking it 
was dinner ("obed") to which he had been asked. 
Then there are those, too, whose efforts were 
hopelessly below even this standard, such as 
Alonzo de Guzman, who suffered hunger in Ger- 
many because he only knew Spanish, and was 
put on the road to Bologna when he wanted to get 
to Cologne; or the Englishman who was trying 
to find that same road and went along staggering 
the peasantry with the question, "Her ist das der 
raight stroze auf balnea?" the peasantry replying 
by signs that he interpreted as directions, but 
the road led him further than ever from Baden. 
To which class belonged a certain friend of Josias 
Bodley, younger brother of the founder of the 
Bodleian library and author of by far the liveliest 
account of a tour at this period, 6 will never be 
known, but that is no reason why the tale should 
not be re-told. "Not long ago I was in company 
with some boon companions who were drinking 
healths in usquebagh, when one was present who 
wished to appear more abstemious than the rest 
and would not drink with them, to whom one 



s 2 "Touring in 1600 

of them, who could not speak Latin as well as 
I do, said these words, 'Si tu es plus sapientis 
quam nos sumus, tu es plus beholden to God 
Almighty quam nos sumus.'" And finally there 
are those who find themselves reduced to sign- 
language, such as the Roman Catholics who 
found a sumptuous dinner awaiting them at a 
Protestant inn on a fast-day, when, to add to the 
trial of refusing it, was the apparent impossibility 
of making their wants understood, until one of 
their number, a priest, by the way, imitated a 
hen's cackle and "laid" a piece of white paper 
the shape and size of an egg! 

While conversation-dictionaries existed which 
claimed to be useful their claim has no other 
basis than that of their own prefaces; the tourists 
do not own to indebtedness to them. But taking 
it for granted that primary needs must be served 
by persons, not books, for further acquirements 
Moryson recommends the romance of "Amadis 
de Gaule" which was being read by every one in 
his own tongue. Probably the conversation-books 
are of more use now than at the time of 
their publication, from the light they occasionally 
throw on customs, and, through their phonet- 
icism, on pronunciation. Yet the tourists' own 
evidence as to this is more valuable, as being 
more authentic, when an Englishman writes 
"Landtaye" for "Landtage" and "Bawre" for 
"Bauer." As for sixteenth-century maps, they 



A TYPICAL TOWN-PLAN 

Map of Venice, illustrating especially the disregard of scale. From 
H. de Beauveaus "Relation journaliere" 1615. 



Guide-Books and Guides 53 

seem meant for gifts rather to an enemy than to 
a friend. In every department, then, the tourist 
had recourse to persons. 

The qualifications for a first-rate guide, then 
and now, difTer in one respect only, — that a 
"religious test" should be applied was taken for 
granted on both sides. In fact, in Scotland in 
1609 an edict was issued forbidding young noble- 
men to leave the country without a Protestant 
tutor: the reason being that the great danger of 
a tour abroad lay in a possible change in the 
youngster's religion, or inclinations towards tol- 
erance developing, with the result that his politi- 
cal career on his return might be dangerous to his 
country and himself through his being more than 
the just one step ahead of his fellow-countrymen 
which is necessary to political salvation. 

The prevailing state of mind may be illustrated 
by one or two anecdotes. The following one 
Lauder tells of himself is characteristic of his 
kind. He had entered a church where all were 
on their knees: "a woman observing that I neither 
had gone to the font for holy water, neither 
kneeled, in a great heat of zeal she told me 'ne 
venez icy pour prophaner ce sainct lieu.' I sud- 
denly replied: 'Vous estez bien devotieuse, ma- 
dame, mais peut estre vostre ignorance prophane 
ce sainct lieu d'avantage que ma presence.'" 
William Lithgow is proud to say he quarrelled 
with companions simply because they were 



54 Touring in 1600 

Papists, and had often seized opportunities to 
tear in pieces the rich garments on images rather 
than "with indifferent forbearance wink at the 
wickedness of idolaters." And an Englishman 
of good education and breeding and character, 
says that being at Malaga cathedral during High 
Mass "so long as we were bare-headed and be- 
haved ourselves civilly and gravely, we might 
walk up and down and see everything without 
the least molestation." One extreme was natur- 
ally accompanied by another extreme. Some- 
times the tourist's return never took place. This 
was the more likely when the Papacy was in a 
militant mood, at which times the Inquisition de- 
veloped a taste for tutors; whose arrest served 
a double purpose, a hot antagonist was secured, 
unimportant enough to create no serious trouble, 
and the young nobleman was left undefended 
on his sectarian side, probably a vulnerable one. 
One case of many is that of John Mole, 7 who died 
in the prison of the Inquisition at Rome in 1638 
at the age of eighty, after thirty years' imprison- 
ment; his ward, Lord Roos, having been credited 
with no particular desire to get him out. 

A visit to Rome, however, and to other places, 
such as St. Omer, where "seminaries" existed for 
English Roman Catholics, was usually forbidden 
in the licence to go abroad which every English- 
man had to obtain unless he was a merchant, and 
which was not granted without good reason 



A TYPICAL MAP 

Part of Flanders, from Matthew Quadt's " Giographisch Handtbuch," 
1600. Illustrates the approximateness of detail and the absence of 
roads, especially as contrasted with the indications of waterways. But 
it must be noted that cartography made as great advances during 
the period here dealt with as surgery during the nineteenth century. 



7~ykmdna ptrj.ni loco ,sed nffrrdncwaxwia tt est re 




Guide-Books and Guides 55 

shown. This contained ordinarily a time limit 
also, one year's leave, or three; and prohibition 
of communication with disloyal countrymen or 
entry into a State at war with England: super- 
vision of a kind which was exercised by practi- 
cally every European ruler. A Roman Catholic, 
for instance, incurred excommunication if he 
passed into a country at war with the Pope. 

The precautions of Protestant sovereigns were 
against Roman Catholicism inasmuch as there 
lay political dangers, but so far as religion was 
concerned, as much precaution might reasonably 
have been taken against Mohammedanism. In 
no European country did ability bring a man to 
the top so readily as in Turkey, and being a for- 
eigner was in a man's favour; not even at Venice 
was there such a mixture of nations as at Con- 
stantinople; the majority of the Grand Signor's 
eminent subjects were renegade foreigners. Dal- 
lam might refuse the invitation; many accepted 
it ; and a Turk considered it only humane to give an 
unbeliever at least one definite invitation to sal- 
vation. An occasion which many would make 
use of to turn Turk was during the fortnight pre- 
ceding the circumcision of the Sultan's heir. One 
traveller saw two hundred circumcised at such a 
time, many of them adult, one said to be as old as 
fifty-three. As a particular instance of an Eng- 
lish "Turk" there is the case of the English Con- 
sul at Cairo in 1601. He was "taking care" of 



56 Touring in 1600 

much belonging to English merchants at the time, 
in the possession of which the Turks no doubt 
confirmed him. At the same time there was an 
exactly similar case of a Venetian, for the same pur- 
pose. But besides the causes of the chance to 
rise in the world, or the attractions of others' pro- 
perty, there was another reason for apostacy, the 
chief one — mitigating the sufferings of captivity. 

But the renegades came mostly from the lower 
or the commercial class, and did not come home, 
so that the fact that a guide was required to be a 
sectarian, in contradistinction to a Christian, is 
another comment on the characteristics of the 
Average Tourist. Sir Walter Ralegh, however, 
did not make that a qualification, for he chose 
Ben Jonson to chaperon his son. There is only 
one anecdote about Ben Jonson in that capacity, 
the one he told Drummond himself. "This 
youth" [i. e. y Ralegh's son] "being knavishly 
inclined, caused him to be drunken, and dead 
drunk, so that he knew not where he was; there- 
after laid him on a car, which he made to be 
drawn through the streets, at every corner show- 
ing his governor stretched out and telling them 
that was a more lively image of the Crucifix than 
any they had: at which young Ralegh's mother 
delighted much (saying his father when young 
was so inclined), though the father abhorred it." 

Another sixteenth-century guide immortalised 
by another's pen is Jean Bouchet, "Traverseur 



Guide-Books and Guides 57 

de Voies Perilleuses" as he called himself. Not 
that Rabelais, to whom the pen belonged, names 
him, only he applies this nickname to the guide 
of Pantagruel and company, Xenomanes (i. e. f 
"mad on foreigners"). No easy task to be an 
orthodox guide with Friar John at one's elbow; 
for guide-book etymologies Friar John had no 
taste; only asked, "What's that to do with me? 
I was n't in the country when it was baptised!" 
A guide to suit Friar John would have been some 
disciple of Montaigne, who while agreeing with 
the others that travelling was one of the best 
forms of education thought that it was not "pour 
en rapporter seulement, a la mode de nostre 
noblesse francoise, combien de pas a 'Santa 
Rotonda,' ou la richesse des calessons de la sig- 
nora Livia; ou, comme d'aultres, combien le 
visage de Neron, de quelque vieille ruyne de la, 
est plus long ou plus large que celuy de quelque 
pareille medaille, mais pour rapporter principale- 
ment les humeurs de ces nations et leur facons, 
et pour frotter et limer nostre cervelle contre celle 
d'aultruy." 

Others, too, like Montaigne, without setting 
out to write guide-books, have guidance to offer 
as a result of experience of life and travel; some- 
times in letters, sometimes in chance remarks. 
Letters of this kind which have survived are 
many, but so much alike are they as to suggest 
that the fathers shrunk from explaining to the 



58 Touring in 1600 

sons how they themselves had made the most of 
their time and fell back on unacknowledged quo- 
tations from a Gruberus. Of the few frank ones 
the two best are by Sir Philip Sidney to his 
brother, and by the ninth Earl of Northumber- 
land to his son Algernon. 8 Although the latter 
is nearly as encyclopaedic as Plotius, it is so 
merely in the way of suggestion, discussing only 
motives and ideas and insisting on his son's free- 
dom of choice, in general as well as in detail ; with 
one or two remarks added that would have scan- 
dalised the guide-book writer, but leaven the 
whole of the letter. It is especially interesting 
as showing how the idea of travel as a factor in 
life brought out the best of a man who was a 
failure at home from a day-by-day point of view. 

As for chance remarks: one likens travelling 
to death in so far as it means separation from 
friends, letters, moreover, yielding as little satis- 
faction as prayers ; and whereas the wise say that 
death is the entrance to a happier life, there is 
the opposite prospect with travel, so that it has 
all the disadvantages of hell as well as of death. 
And here may follow a few more remarks of 
theirs, chosen as suggestive of the characteristics 
of sixteenth-century travel in so far as it differs 
from our own, not neglecting proverbs : — 

A traveller has need of a falcon's eye, an ass's 
ears, a monkey's face, a merchant's words, a 
camel's back, a hog's mouth, a deer's feet. And 



Guide-Books and Guides 59 

the traveller to Rome — the back of an ass, the 
belly of a hog, and a conscience as broad as the 
king's highway. 

Line your doublet with taffetie; taffetie is lice- 
proof. 

Never journey without something to eat in 
your pocket, if only to throw to dogs when at- 
tacked by them. 

Carry a note-book and red crayon (i. e., lead 
pencils were not in regular use). 

When going by coach, avoid women, especially 
old women; they always want the best places. 

At sea, remove your spurs; sailors make a point 
of stealing them from those who are being sea- 
sick. Keep your distance from them in any case; 
they are covered with vermin. 

In an inn-bedroom which contains big pictures, 
look behind the latter to see they do not conceal 
a secret door, or a window. 

Women should not travel at all and married 
men not much. 



CHAPTER III 



ON THE WATER 



Chi pud venire per mare non e lontano. 

Paolo Sarpi, 1608. x 

HENTZNER, in his preface, acknowledges 
that the troubles of a traveller are great 
and finds only two arguments to coun- 
tervail them: that man is born unto trouble, and 
that Abraham had orders to travel direct from 
God. Abraham, however, did not have to cross 
the Channel. Otherwise, perhaps, the prospect 
of sacrificing himself as well as his only son Isaac, 
would have brought to light a flaw in his obedi- 
ence. There was, it is true, the chance of crossing 
from Dover to Calais in four hours, but the 
experiences of Princess Cecilia, already related, 
were no less likely. In 1610 two Ambassadors 
waited at Calais fourteen days before they could 
make a start, and making a start by no means 
implied arriving — at least, not at Dover; one 
gentleman, after a most unhappy night, found 
himself at Nieuport next morning and had to 
wait three days before another try could be made. 
Yet another, who had already sailed from Bou- 
logne after having waited six hours for the tide, 
accomplished two leagues, been becalmed for 



On the Water 61 

nine or ten hours, returned to Boulogne by rowing- 
boat, and posted to Calais, found no wind to take 
him across there and had to charter another 
rowing-boat at sunset on Friday, reaching Dover 
on Monday between four and five a. m. It was 
naturally a rare occurrence to go the whole dis- 
tance by small boat, because of the risk. Lord 
Herbert of Cherbury was the most noteworthy 
exception; after he had made three attempts from 
Brill and covered distances which varied from 
just outside the harbour to half-way, arriving 
at Brill again, however, each time, he went by 
land to Calais, where the sea was so dangerous 
that no one would venture, no one except one 
old fisherman, whose boat, he himself owned, 
was one of the worst in the harbour, but, on the 
other hand, he did not mind whether he lived 
or died. 

But finishing the crossing by rowing-boat was 
a very ordinary experience because of the state 
of the harbours. Calais was the better of the two, 
yet it sometimes happened that passengers had 
to be carried ashore one hundred yards or more 
because not even boats could approach. In 1576 
an ambassador to France complains that Dover 
harbour is in such utter ruin that he will cross 
elsewhere in future; in 1 5 80 Sir Walter Ralegh 
procured reform, which was perpetually in need 
of renewal. In time a stone pier was built, small, 
and dry at low water, as indeed the whole harbour 



62 Touring in 1600 

was ; the entrance was narrow and kept from being 
choked up only by means of a gate which let out 
the water with a rush at low tide. The ancient, 
quicker route to Wissant, more or less the route 
which "Channel-swimmers" make for now, had 
begun to be abandoned when the English ob- 
tained a port of their own on the opposite coast, 
and had been completely dropped by this time. 
Boulogne had no cross-channel passenger traffic 
worth mentioning. Dieppe, on the contrary, was 
as much used as Calais, the corresponding har- 
bour being, not Newhaven, but Rye, which was 
also the objective on the rarer occasions when the 
starting-place was Havre. So unusual was the 
Havre-Southampton passage that among the sus- 
picious circumstances alleged against a Genoese 
who landed in 1599, one was his choice of this way 
across. 2 

Going by the North Sea the usual havens were 
Gravesend, and Flushing or Brill, in spite of 
Brill's shallow harbour-bar, passed on one occa- 
sion with only two feet of water under the keel 
when "Mr. Thatcher, a merchant of London, 
who had goods therein, was so apprehensive that 
he changed colours and said he was undone, 'Oh 
Lord,' and such-like passionate expressions." Har- 
wich was reputed so dangerous a harbour that 
when Charles I's mother-in-law came to visit 
her daughter in 1638 and put in there, she 
found no one to receive her; it not being thought 



On the JVater 63 

within possibility to expect her to land there. 
The fact that she did was probably due to her 
having been seven days at sea in a storm; not 
that the courtier-chronicler of her voyage allows 
she was any the worse for it, although he owns of 
her ladies that "they touched the hearts of the 
beholders more with pity than with love." A 
forty-eight-hour passage was nothing to grumble 
at: Arthur Wilson, the historian of James I's 
reign, left Brill in an old twenty-five-ton mussel- 
boat, at the bottom of which he lay, sea-sick and 
expecting drowning, for three days and three 
nights until he came ashore at — the Hague. 

Among many other experiences of the kind, 
that 3 of John Chamberlain, the letter-writer, 
may be chosen. Setting out from Rotterdam, 
after twenty-four hours' sailing, he had been 
within sight of Ostend and was back again at 
Rotterdam. There he stayed a fortnight, putting 
to sea at intervals and coming back. Then the 
wind came fair for Calais, but veered round rather 
too soon and the first haven they could reach was 
that of Yarmouth, after two days' running before 
the storm. It was low tide; they went aground 
while entering, and for some time it looked like 
being lost with all hands, but getting off again, 
the waves took the ship against the piles at the 
head of the breakwater. Some thought it worth 
while- trying to jump ashore, three of whom the 
others saw drowned and one crushed to death 



64 Touring in 1600 

against the piles. But in the end the rest landed 
safely in boats, and buried the dead ; and Chamber- 
lain himself, after a winter evening spent wander- 
ing about Newmarket heath in the rain and wind 
through the guide losing his way, arrived in town 
at 1 1 p. m. on the twentieth day after first leav- 
ing Rotterdam. 

On this route the ownership of the vessel might 
be guessed by the amount of swearing that went 
on. Dutch ships had no prayers said, rarely 
carried a chaplain even on the longest voyages, 
but swearers were fined, even if it was no more 
than naming the devil. Psalm-singing would go 
on on any vessel manned by Protestants on 
account of the popularity of the music written 
for the Reformers, but if a vessel had a garland 
of flowers hanging from its mainmast that again 
would show it a Dutchman; it meant that the 
captain was engaged to be married. 

The passage-boats were about sixty feet long, 
which then meant a tonnage of about the same 
figure, and had a single deck, beneath which the 
passengers might find shelter if the merchandise 
left them room. The complement of passengers 
may be taken as seventy. The highest total of 
passengers I have found mentioned for one ship 
is two thousand, of whom Delia Valle was one, 
but that was when he sailed from Constantinople 
to Cairo, the vessels employed on official business 
between those two places exclusively being the 



A CHANNEL PASSAGE-BOAT 

From Munster's "Cosmographie" 1575 ("■ 865 — part of the map 
of Germany). 








3#i 



Pi!'i , 'i'«i >i ,, i'»i , i , ! ,, i , K 
!'i» , »! l i , ''i , i!'i , i ,, | ,, i l . ,,, i , 'i'»! , »'r /Ufa^V^fl 1 <tr 

l ';'^^:'!';':': , ^! , l;':^;':'^! l ^ l ^:'^ ; :^T 1 w; 
! i • !*! •! &£$ 

; !i: a ■ mm ii 8%a 

v i iJi.'i 1 1 > 'i i, 'uMank.1, 1 ! i . Y Av 




^.'i!%'iI , i''! , iI , )l&ifiv!'W7*yi , ! , i , iI 1 ?i •'• 'iM'I'i'iI'I'i'imi 

',; I'li'/'iffiii »'",t'',": '.•!""'' 



mmffiCKKxmxxfG&^steXi 



jKflftaMMraw myaa^^ 



On the Water 65 

largest in the world at that date. Apart from 
these, the maximum tonnage was about twelve 
hundred, and a 500-ton ship was reckoned a large 
one; an average Venetian merchantman measured 
about cjofeetX 20 X 16, a tonnage, that is, of about 
166, according to English sixteenth-century reck- 
oning. 4 The French traveller Villamont says the 
ship in which he left Venice in 1589 and which 
he was told cost fifty thousand crowns (say 
eighty-five thousand pounds of our money) to 
build and equip, had for its greatest length 188 
feet and greatest breadth 59 feet. 

As for accommodation in the larger boats, neither 
Dallam nor Moryson changed their clothes or 
slept in a bed while at sea, and there is no reason 
to suppose that any one else did who travelled 
under ordinary conditions. Cabins were to be 
had in the high-built sterns ; even in Villamont's 
moderate-sized ship there were eight decks astern, 
the fourth from the keel, the captain's dining- 
room, accommodating thirty-nine persons at 
meal-times, all of whom, it is clear enough, slept 
in cabins above or below. Moryson, however, 
refused a cabin, preferring to sleep in a place 
where there was cover overhead but none at the 
sides. 

The chief exception to ordinary conditions was 
the pilgrim-ship for Jerusalem in the days, which 
ceased during this period, when special galleys 



66 Touring in 1600 

ran from Venice to Jaffa and back, in the summer. 
Here alone could the passenger have the upper 
hand, since these galleys alone were passenger- 
boats primarily. The captain would be willing, 
if asked, to bind himself in writing before the 
authorities at Venice, to take the pilgrim to Jaffa, 
wait there and bring him back, call at certain 
places to take in fresh water, meat, and bread, 
carry live hens, a barber-surgeon, and a physician, 
avoid unhealthy ports such as Famagosta, stay 
nowhere longer than three days without the con- 
sent of the pilgrim, receive no merchandise which 
might inconvenience or delay him, provide two 
hot meals a day and good wine, and guarantee the 
safety of any belongings he might leave in the 
galley during his absence at Jerusalem. No agree- 
ments, however, seem to have insured the pil- 
grim against starvation diet, and therefore it was 
prudent to store a chest with victuals, especially 
delicacies, and lay in wine; for, Venice once left 
behind, wine might be dearer or even unobtain- 
able. Taking victuals implied buying a frying- 
pan, dishes, big and little, of earthenware or 
wood, a stew-pot, and a twig-basket to carry 
when he landed and went shopping. Likewise a 
lantern and candles and bedding, which might be 
purchased near St. Mark's; a feather-bed, mat- 
tress, two pillows, two pairs of sheets, a small 
quilt, for three ducats; and all of these will be 
bought back at the end of the voyage at half 



On the TVater 67 

price. Medicines he must on no account forget. 
Care had to be taken, too, in choosing a position, 
not below deck, which is "smouldering hot and 
stinking," but above, where both shelter, light, 
and air were to be had; this, of course, for the 
benefit of such as were unable to secure a place 
in the stern-cabins. 

If the passenger did not find himself in a 
position to get these counsels of perfection car- 
ried out, this is what he would experience: "In 
the galley all sorts of discomfort are met with: 
to each of us was allotted a space three spans 
broad, and so we lay one upon another, suffering 
greatly from the heat in summer and much 
troubled by vermin. Huge rats came running 
over our faces at nights, and a sharp eye had to 
be kept on the torches, for some people go about 
carelessly and there's no putting them out in 
case of fire, being, as they are, all pitch. And 
when it is time to go to sleep and one has great 
desire thereto, others near him talk or sing or yell 
and generally please themselves, so that one's 
rest is broken. Those near us who fell ill mostly 
died. God have mercy on them! In day-time 
too when we were all in our places busy eating 
and the galley bore down on the side to which the 
sail shifted, all the sailors called out 'pando,' that 
is, 'to the other side,' and over we must go; and 
if the sea was rough and the galley lurched, our 
heads turned all giddy and some toppled over 



68 'Touring in 1600 

and the rest on top of them, falling about like 
so many drunken yokels. The meals the captain 
gave us were not exactly inviting; the meat had 
been hanging in the sun, the bread hard as a stone 
with many weevils in it, the water at times stank, 
the wine warm, or hot enough for the steam to 
rise, with a beastly taste to it; and at times, too, 
we had to do our eating under a blazing sun. . . . 6 
Bugs, etc., crept about over everything.'' 6 Another, 
after many similar complaints, of cold food and 
warm drink, and of sailors who walked about on 
top of him when he wanted to sleep, and so on, 
adds a fresh one, quite unmentionable, and then 
goes on that he passes over the more disgusting 
features so as not to discourage intending pil- 
grims. 

The disappearance of the pilgrim galley was 
more gain than loss, but it had the advantage 
of more variety in the company and the voyage, 
and probably, of a bigger ship; Moryson's ship 
was 900-tons and Delia Valle's Gran Delfino was 
a great war galleon, with forty-five cannon and five 
hundred passengers, — too many, it proved; in the 
end twenty or thirty fell ill every day and some 
died. And the mixture that there was! Men and wo- 
men, soldiers, traders, Greeks, Armenians, Turks, 
Persians, Jews, Italians from almost every state, 
French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, Germans, 
Flemings. In Moryson's boat there were Indian 
sun-worshippers as well. In another, Moors and 



On the Water 69 

Muscovites. Every day in the Gran Delfino a bell 
was rung for prayer, when each man prayed in his 
own way; prayer over, the sailors, all Greeks, turned 
bareheaded to the East and cried three times, 
"Buon' Viaggio!!!" and the captain preached a 
non-sectarian sermon. With the Gran Delfino, 
moreover, the start was an impressive function; 
the vessel, belonging as it did to the State, being 
towed beyond the lagoons by thirty-three eight- 
oared boats, directed by a venerable signor de- 
puted by the authorities. Once outside, however, 
and left to itself, it was less impressive, at the 
mercy of a wind so uncertain that it crossed the 
Adriatic from shore to shore twenty-five times. 

In reckoning the length of voyages it would 
not be sufficient to multiply the delay by bad 
weather that took place in the Channel crossings 
by the extra mileage of a given distance; there 
was the additional delay due to the difficulty of 
obtaining a ship at all, even in the best of weath- 
ers, a difficulty proportionate to the length of the 
voyage. The first-mentioned difficulty must not 
be minimised; it was reasonable caricature for 
Sir John Harington, Queen Elizabeth's godson, 
to represent his Rabelaisian hero as returning 
from "Japana near China" in a "24-hours sail 
with some two or three odd years beside." And 
by way of illustration it may be added that one 
and the same voyage — from Messina to Smyrna 



1 



70 Touring in 1600 

— took one man thirteen weeks and another 
thirty-five days; and that whereas the usual 
length of the pilgrim voyage from Jaffa to Venice 
was under five weeks, one band of pilgrims whose 
return journey was delayed till the winter storms 
caught them, were continuously at sea, or con- 
tinuously trying to be at sea, from September 19th 
till January 25 th. Yet another cause of delay, in 
the Mediterranean, at least, was the Italian cus- 
tom of paying the sailors by the day; English 
ships, payment on which was at so much a voy- 
age, were by far the quicker. 

To return to difficulty number two, that of 
obtaining any ship, instances of it are continu- 
ally occurring. Consider the complaint that one 
Greenhalgh writes to his friend 7 — how he wished 
to go by sea to Naples or elsewhere in Italy, 
went to the Exchange at London almost daily 
for a month to read the ships' bills hanging there; 
could find none to take him; took passage at 
Blackwall on one that was bound for Dunkirk, 
but which the wind carried along the coast of 
Norfolk; reached Dunkirk in four days and four 
nights; no ship to be found there Italy-bound; 
nor at Gravelines; nor at Calais; so came back: 
seven weeks wasted. 

But it may reasonably be asked, why did n't 
he go by land? Well, that is a question without 
an answer; but for any journey where the mileage 
by sea was near the mileage by land, men of 



On the IVater 71 

experience of these days reckoned it safer and 
quicker and consequently cheaper to go by sea. 
Once when Sir Henry Wotton, who exhaled six- 
teenth-century wisdom whenever he spoke, was 
at his favourite occupation of holding forth to 
the Venetian Signory on things in general, we 
find him taking it for granted that Poland and 
Hungary were far from Venice as compared with 
England and Holland; an exaggeration, no doubt; 
but an exaggeration that stood no chance of being 
believed would not have served his purpose. And 
it would be just plain fact to say, with regard to 
Danzig and Paris, and every other similar jour- 
ney, the sea for choice; even from Genoa to Rome, 
amid all the danger of captivity for life by Bar- 
bary pirates, there was a daily service of boats in 
1588 according to Villamont; it was the more 
usual route. Howell, indeed, leaving Paris for 
Spain, went to St. Malo to find a ship, but the 
ordinary route was to go down the Loire to 
Nantes, and by sea thence. 

In the same way, from Rome to Barcelona was 
usually made a sea-trip, although the sailors 
coasted instead of going direct. All voyages in 
fact were coasting voyages whenever possible; 
no landsman was more scared of the open sea 
than the average sailor during this period, the 
greatest for the exploration of oceans that the 
world has ever seen, except, perhaps, that un- 
known age when the islands of the Pacific were 



72 'Touring in 1600 

colonised. The fear was based on an accurate 
knowledge of their own incapacity, revealed to 
us by one or two travellers who were interested 
in the science of navigation. A certain French- 
man embarked at Vannes for Portugal; no bear- 
ings were taken, and the pilot had no chart; 
trusted to his eye for his knowledge; which re- 
sulted in his coasting along Galicia under the 
impression it was Asturias. So with the master 
of the Venetian ship that Lithgow sailed in; 
he had no compass, cast anchor at night and 
guessed his whereabouts in daytime by the hills 
he recognised; on his way back from Alexandria 
a storm drove them out of their course and he 
describes, in his doggrel verse, the sailors spend- 
ing hours identifying headlands, only to find them- 
selves mistaken. Indeed, there was no satisfac- 
tory method of ascertaining longitude at sea; 
although European rulers were offering rewards 
to the inventor of a method, no one was successful 
in trying to solve the problem, not even Galileo. 8 
So habitual a practice was coasting that if a ship 
was intent on avoiding a pirate the surest plan 
was to keep to the open sea. 

But for the most part they seem to have 
trusted to luck with regard to piracy, knowing 
pirates to be as likely to be met with as storms. 
The two chief centres were Dunkirk and Algiers, 
and as the Dunkirkers and Algerines met in the 
Atlantic, the Baltic was the only European sea 



SHIP FOR A LONG-DISTANCE VOYAGE 

Dutch vessel, showing the open cabins at the stern in ■which Mory- 
son preferred to sleep. From J. FurtenbacK 's "Architectures Navalis" 
162Q. 



On the Water 73 

free from them, during the latter half of this 
period at least. In the earlier, war was so con- 
tinual as to provide employment, or pretext, for 
the bulk of the scoundrels and unfortunates of 
the continent whom the comparative peace that 
succeeded turned loose on commerce, and con- 
sequently on tourists. 

It was bad enough in the Channel before this. 
In 1573 the Earl of Worcester crossed with a gold 
salver as a christening present for Charles IX's 
daughter; the ship was attacked by pirates; 
eleven of his suite were killed or wounded and 
property worth five hundred pounds stolen. In 
1584, Mr. Oppenheim states, the French am- 
bassador complained that in the two preceding 
years English pirates had plundered Frenchmen 
of merchandise to the value of two hundred 
thousand crowns: the answer was that the Eng- 
lish had lost more than that through French 
pirates. So in 1600 we find the Mayor of Exeter 
writing up about the Dunkirkers, "scarce one 
bark in five escapeth these cormorants." 9 Re- 
pression that was exercised by the governments 
on both sides of the Channel had the effect of 
making the Mediterranean worse than it had 
been, for the pirates, especially English, not only 
followed their occupation there themselves but 
taught the Turks and Algerines far more about 
navigation than the latter would have discovered 
by themselves. Which, by the way, had a further 



74 Touring in 1600 

result adverse to English tourists, for the Italian 
states that had previously been favourably in-, 
clined to England, Venice and Tuscany, both of 
European importance, grew unfriendly; Tuscany 
becoming definitely hostile. 

But the state of the Mediterranean for men of 
all nationalities was such that it would probably 
be difficult to find a detailed account of a voyage 
during the first half of the seventeenth century 
which does not mention meeting an enemy. 
What might happen then is best illustrated in the 
experience of a Russian monk of rather earlier 
date: "half-way, a ship full of pirates attacked 
us. When their cannon had shattered our boat, 
they leapt on board like savage beasts and cut 
the ship's master to pieces and threw him into 
the sea, and took all they found. As for me, they 
gave me a blow in the stomach with the butt-end 
of a lance, saying 'Monk, give us a ducat or a 
gold piece.' I swore by the living God, by God 
Almighty, that I had none such. They bereft me 
of my all, leaving me nought but my frock and 
took to running all about the ship like wild beasts 
waving glittering lances, swords and axes. . . ." 

Storms also were accompanied by incidents 
out of a present-day tourist's experience, to a 
greater extent than would readily be imagined; 
and this especially in the Mediterranean, where 
a large proportion of the sailors were Greeks with 



On the JVater 75 

vivid superstitions, and courage but one day a 
year, that of St. Catherine, the patroness of 
sailors, when nobody ever got drowned. Other 
days it required very little danger to make them 
abandon themselves to despair and to all the 
signs of it which were most likely to distract and 
demoralise the more level-headed; one by one 
their relics would go overboard in attempted 
propitiation, and the tourist was in danger of 
following in person if he was suspected of being 
no good Christian and therefore the probable 
cause of the storm. Such is the recorded experi- 
ence of more than one; and a priest who had been 
in the habit of reading a Bible was threatened 
with ejection as a sorcerer, and his books with 
him; fortunately the storm abated when the sail- 
ors had reached that point. 

It may safely be said that control of the weather 
by sorcerers was altogether disbelieved in by very 
few persons then, but if the belief was held more 
strongly along one coast-line than another, it was 
round the Baltic rather than elsewhere. As late 
as 1670 10 a traveller tells us how being becalmed 
off Finland, the captain sent ashore to buy a wind 
from a wizard; the fee was ten kroner (say thirty- 
six shillings) and a pound of tobacco. The wizard 
tied a woollen rag to the mast, with three knots 
in it. Untying the first knot produces just the 
wind they want; S. W.; that slackening, untying 
knot number two revives it for a time; but knot 



76 "Touring in 1600 

number three brings up a fearful northeaster 
which nearly sank them. "Qui nescit orare, dis- 
cat navigare" was a much-quoted phrase; truly- 
enough of one traveller, it would appear, seeing 
he is reported to have prayed during a storm; "O 
Lord, I am no common beggar; I do not trouble 
thee every day; for I never prayed to thee before; 
and if it please thee to deliver me this once, I 
will never pray to thee again as long as I live." 

Shipwreck had an additional danger when it 
happened to a galley rowed by forced labour. 
Cardinal De Retz gives a vivid picture of what 
happened when the one he was in ran aground. 
The whole bank of galley-slaves rose; in fear, or 
to escape by swimming, or to master the vessel 
amidst the confusion. The commander and other 
officers took double-edged swords and struck 
down all whom they found standing. Even a 
mere landing was not without risk, for the custom 
in force almost universally of asking every new- 
comer officially his business, home, destination, 
was still more the rule at the coast; this same 
cardinal, when a fugitive landing in shabby 
clothes at St. Sebastian, was told by the soldiers 
he would probably be hanged in the morning, 
inasmuch as the ship's captain had mislaid his 
"charte-partie," in the absence of which every 
one in the ship could legally be hanged without 
trial. 

And if they had their special sea-troubles of 



On the JVater 77 

pirates and Greek sailors and small boats in high 
seas, how much more certain was sea-sickness and 
the length of its enduring. Lauder remembered 
leaving Dover at 2 a. m. — "What a distressed 
broker I was upon the sea needs not here be told 
since it 's not to be feared that I '11 forget it, yet 
I cannot but tell how Mr. John Kincead and I 
had a bucket betwixt us and strove who should 
have the bucket first, both equally ready; and 
how at every vomit and gasp he gave he cried 
'God's mercy' as if he had been about to expire 
immediately." For preventives nobody has any- 
thing to suggest except, appropriately enough, 
one Father Noah, a Franciscan, who prescribes 
pomegranates and mint; and Rabelais, who says 
that Pantagruel and company departed with full 
stomachs and for that reason were not sea-sick; 
a better precaution, he goes on, than drinking 
water some days beforehand, salt or fresh, with 
wine or meat, or than taking pulp of quinces, or 
lemon-peel, or pomegranate juice; or fasting pre- 
viously, or covering their stomachs with paper. 

Yet Panurge, who was always full or filling, 
became sea-sick when the storm came. As a 
picture of sea-sickness, Rabelais' account of 
Panurge sea-sick is probably unsurpassed. "He 
remained all of a heap on Deck, utterly cast down 
and metagrobolised. 'What ho, Steward, my 
Friend, my Father, my Uncle; . . . O, three and 
four times happy are those who plant Cabbages 



78 "Touring in 1600 

. . . they have always one Foot on Land and the 
other is not far from it. . . . This Wave will 
sweep us away, blessed Saviour. O my Friend, 
a little Vinegar; I sweat again with sheer Agony. 
... I am drowning, I am drowning, I am dying. 
Good people, I drown. . . . Ah, my Father, my 
Uncle, my All, the water has got into my Shoes, 
by my Shirt-collar. Bous, bous, bous; paisch; 
hu, hu, hu, ha, ha, ha, I drown . . . eighteen hun- 
dred thousand Crowns a year to the man who will 
put me ashore. . . . Holos, good People, I drown, 
I die. Consummatum est; it is all over with me. 
. . . My good man, could n't you throw me 
ashore?'" 11 

Sea-sickness was probably more common then 
than now because the discomforts were so much 
farther from being minimised. Moryson recom- 
mends passengers to take rose leaves, lemons or 
oranges, or the roots or the leaves of angelica, 
cloves, or rosemary, to counteract the evil smells 
of the boat; he might have added, of the company 
too, more particularly with reference to river 
traffic, because there the company was specially 
liable to be mixed by reason of the cheapness of 
that way of travelling as compared with horse- 
back; and because the contact with each other 
was close. 

It is not without signification that practically 
all district-maps of this date mark the courses of 
rivers, but not of roads. Probably few records 



On the Water 79 

could be found of any touring of this period worth 
calling a tour which was not partly conducted by 
river. One advantage of river travel was that that 
way was more regularly practicable than the 
roads, which bad weather soon rendered barely 
passable. Moreover, it was the pleasantest mode 
of journeying, especially if the boat was towed; 
for travelling in a sixteenth-century waggon pro- 
duced something like sea-sickness in those un- 
accustomed to it. On the other hand, to get the 
benefit of the cheapness of river travelling, as 
compared with riding, one had to wait, at times, 
for fellow-travellers to fill the boat; also, the 
choice of route was, of course, more limited ; and 
on the swifter rivers it was not usual, or worth 
while, to attempt an up-stream journey. 

On the Loire, for instance, at Roanne, where it 
began to be navigable, boats were all built for 
sale, not for hire, as they were not expected to 
come back; and the same practice was in use 
elsewhere. But this must be taken as a rule with 
many exceptions. On the lower Loire towing was 
in regular use and Lady Fanshawe, who tried it, 
right from Nantes to Orleans, says, "of all my 
travels none were, for travel sake, as I may call 
it, so pleasant as this." They went on shore to 
sleep, but kept to the boat all daytime, for it 
possessed a "hearth," a charcoal fire on which they 
did the cooking. Where towing was most fre- 
quently used was probably Russia, all by hand; 



so Touring in 1600 

sometimes as many as three hundred men were 
being employed at once by Charles IPs ambassa- 
dor for the six barges and one boat between 
Archangel and Vologda. 

When rowing was to be done, the tourist found 
himself expected, practically compelled, to take 
his share on the Elbe and the Rhine, and often on 
other rivers too. The diarist Evelyn reckoned that 
he rowed twenty leagues of the distance between 
Roanne and Orleans, and no doubt Edmund 
Waller, the poet, did the same, as he was one of 
the party. If any exemptions were made, it was 
the boatman who exempted himself. 

Another poet, or, at least, verse-writer, was de- 
serted altogether by his boatman. This was John 
Taylor, on his way back from Prague. He had 
taken to the river at Leitmeritz, with his two 
companions and some one else's widow and her 
four small children, they having jointly bought 
a boat forty-eight feet by three. It was at the 
Saxony boundary that the man ran away, whence 
there were six hundred miles to cover, past one 
thousand "shelves and sands," eight hundred 
islands, and numberless tree-stumps and rocks, 
two hundred and forty of the islands having a 
mill on one side, but which side was not visible 
beforehand. His figures, however, need not be 
taken too literally as he went "gathering," to 
use his own words, "like a busy bee, all these 
honied observations; some by sight, some by 



On the Water 81 

hearing, some by both, some by neither, and 
some by bare supposition." 

Equally exciting was Busbecq's passage down 
the Danube in a boat roped to a 24-oar pinnace. 
He was behind time, so they rowed night and day, 
pulling hard against a violent wind. The bed of 
the river was uncared for, and collisions with 
tree-stumps were frequent; once it was with the 
bank, so hard that a few planks came away. But 
the ambassador got no further answer to his re- 
monstrances than "God will help" from the 
Turkish rowers. The Danube was mainly a Turk- 
ish river then. 

On the lakes there were, of course, storms to 
contend with, two of which nearly drowned two 
of the most gifted men of the century, De Thou 
the historian, and the artist Cellini. It is fairly 
clear, too, that their almost identical experiences 
took place on the same lake ; that of Wallenstadt, 
although neither of them gives the name. The 
boat De Thou crossed in was made of fir-trunks, 
neither sound, nor tarred, nor nailed; a German 
was in it, too, with his horse, which fell about; 
the helmsman left his post, called out to all to 
save themselves if they could; nothing was to be 
seen but rain and lake and perpendicular rock, 
until a cave was sighted towards which all joined 
in an effort to row. A way up the rock was found, 
at the top, an inn, just where Cellini had found 
one nearly half a century earlier. 



82 Touring in 1600 

On the rivers themselves there were two fur- 
ther disadvantages to meet; delay through run- 
ning aground and danger in shooting the bridges. 
The latter was very great: the bridge which gave 
its name to Pont-St.-Esprit on the Rhone was as 
notorious a place for shipwrecks as any headland, 
and no doubt it happened then, as it used to 
happen later, at Beaugency, on the Loire, that 
all card-playing and talking ceased from the mo- 
ment the boatmen began to prepare for the pas- 
sage underneath till the passage was safely over. 
As for running aground, it did not happen so often 
as might have been expected, to judge by what 
is left unsaid by the travellers: one must not 
strike any average from Peter Mundy's feat of 
doing it forty times in two days. 

Both these drawbacks were present, neverthe- 
less, to a serious extent, and for the same reason ; 
the total absence of regulation of the flow of 
water. Locks, or "sluices" as they were termed 
then, were being introduced exceedingly slowly; 
how slowly is evident from a Frenchman explain- 
ing 12 the working in detail in his journal (with- 
out the use of any specialised terms) of one on 
the Reno, between Bologna and Ferrara. Con- 
sidering that he must have had much experience 
of France and had by that time traversed all the 
waterways generally used for passenger traffic 
in Italy, it may be concluded that locks were at 
least very rare in both countries. Some such de- 



LOCK BKTWEEN BOLOGNA AND FERRARA 

From J. FurtenbacK 's "Nezoes Itvnerarium Italics" 162J. There 
were nine 0$ these in thirty-five miles. FurtenbacK 's sketch shows an 
oval basin as seen from above, with lock-gates at the downstream end 
only. He gives its measurements as large enough for three vessels, 
with walls twenty ells high. 



, iii " ;"'*" ' 






o 




On the Water 83 



duction may also be made for England and France 
from an Englishman doing the same when at 
Montargis on the Loire, nearly seventy years 
later. 13 Even in Holland, the nursery of the lock- 
system, its development was slow. In 1605 a 
Venetian ambassador mentions that the lock- 
gates between Brussels and Antwerp were only 
opened once a week, when the weekly trade-barge 
went along; at other times every one had to change 
boats at every lock; just as was done on the series 
of canals formed out of the marshes between the 
Reno and the Po, according to the Frenchman 
just quoted. In the middle of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, the same arrangement was in force between 
Antwerp and Brussels, so Evelyn says, whereas, 
he implies that between Bologna and Ferrara a 
lock system was fully in use. 

In canals, the great achievement of the period 
was the cutting of one for nine miles between 
Amsterdam and Haarlem in six months at a 
cost of £20,000, finished not long before Sir W. 
Brereton passed through it in 1634; the previous 
route had been by a canal in the direction of 
Haarlem Meer, the boat having to be lugged by 
hand past the dam which separated the canal 
from the Meer. Here, in Holland, too, was by far 
the best passenger service in Europe; in many 
cases boats were towed, or sailed, between town 
and town every hour with fares fixed by the local 
authorities, and the only complaint that is to be 



84 'Touring in 1600 

heard concerns the drunkenness of the boatmen, 
who frequently landed the passengers in the water. 
But there is an isolated complaint, by an Italian 
chaplain, which shows what the others accepted 
as no more than reasonable. Nearing Amster- 
dam, he and his passed the night in the open 
barge, unable to sit up, much less stand, because 
of the lowness of the bridges, but forced to lie, in 
pouring rain, on foul straw, as if they were "gen- 
tlemen from Reggio," a phrase that is still used 
in Venice as a synonym for pigs. 

Practicability, comfort, cheapness, and speed 
— for all these qualities the water could more 
than hold its own against the land under even 
conditions; and a traveller from Italy to Munich 
finishes his journey by raft down the Iser and 
reckons himself a gainer in time by using that 
means in preference to horseback. 

It is in France, however, that the importance 
of waterways reaches its maximum. Almost 
every tourist's way from Paris, except that by 
Picardy, lay along a line which a river traversed; 
the windings of the Seine did not prevent it be- 
ing quite as convenient as the road; while the 
Loire and the Rhone were far more so; and for 
approaching Paris, the Garonne was very fre- 
quently part of one route, even up to its mouth; 
the upper Loire of. another. An even clearer idea 
of the importance and amount of usage of river- 
ways in France is gained by considering how 



On the JVater 85 



Lyons has maintained a high and steady de- 
gree of prosperity before, during, and since the 
rise and fall of Venice and of Amsterdam, and 
how at this period the only neglected parts of 
France were those which lay between the chief 
rivers, which have, in fact, so far dictated the 
course to be followed by the main road routes 
that the neglected parts of France are the same 
now as then. To Lyons the Rhone gave access 
to Italy, Spain, and Africa; twelve leagues away 
the Loire becomes navigable, and from Gien on 
the Loire was one day's journey to a tributary 
of the Seine, the Loing: which three rivers put 
Lyons in touch with North Spain, most of France 
and all northern Europe. Neither was Lyons very 
far from the Rhine and the Danube. 

In Spain alone were the rivers unused by the 
traveller. In southern Italy they were less used 
than in Roman times, when passenger traffic was 
customary on the Tiber and smaller rivers, 14 which 
certainly was not the case three hundred years 
ago; the disuse of the lower reaches of the Tiber 
is accounted for by the fear of the Turks, to pre- 
vent an attack on Rome by whom the mouth of 
the river was closed. In North Italy on the other 
hand, the Adige, Brenta, and Po are frequently 
mentioned; the Po, indeed, from Turin must have 
been as constantly in use as any river in Europe 
in proportion to its length. From Mantua to 
Ferrara in 1574 15 a boat sailed every night as a 






86 'Touring in 1600 

matter of course; between Mantua and Venice 
communication by water was regular in 1591, and 
even from Milan to Venice it was quite an ordi- 
nary thing to travel by the Po, finishing the jour- 
ney along the Adige to Chioggia by means of a 
canal which linked up the two rivers. As for the 
Brenta, it had its own proverb, that the passen- 
ger boat (between Padua and Venice) would 
sink when it contained neither monk, student, nor 
courtesan, which is as much as to say that the 
tourist would always find company, as well as a 
boat, ready. 

It is in connection with the waterways of North 
Italy that one of the debated questions of Shake- 
speare's life has arisen: as to how much, or how 
little, he knew of Italy first hand. But hitherto 
the commentators have been contented with so 
little evidence that his references to them have 
been misinterpreted and the accuracy of the im- 
pression that they give, and would give still more 
distinctly had his editors done him justice, has 
been denied. A recent writer 16 has set out the facts 
and some evidence so clearly that there is no 
need to add to the latter further than has already 
been done by the few instances just mentioned: 
a few out of an almost indefinite number which 
are to be found in the writings of these tourists 
contemporary with Shakespeare, who are surely 
the most satisfactory witnesses in a case like this, 
wholly concerned with what he, if a tourist, would 



On the Water 87 

have seen. What they show is that in practically 
every North Italian town passenger traffic by 
water formed part of the daily life, and that is the 
impression clearly shared by Shakespeare. When 
he represents the passenger traffic in an Italian 
river being dependent on the tide, it must be 
remembered that he lived near old London 
Bridge, where the tidal rush was tremendous; and 
that for his purpose in writing accuracy did not 
matter in the very least. Neither is any mistake 
of his over routes to be compared with one of the 
careful Villamont, who asserts that he reached 
Este from Padua by the Brenta and that the 
Brenta is navigable no farther than Este. Now 
Este is southwest of Padua and the Brenta 
reaches the latter from northwest and never gets 
within seventeen miles of Este; but what is more 
particularly to be noted is that Villamont's "Voy- 
ages" was the book of European travel most fre- 
quently reprinted in Shakespeare's lifetime and 
that the error was never corrected. At the same 
time, it is, perhaps, worth while laying stress on the 
fact that no deduction can be made from all this 
as to whether Shakespeare ever left England or 
the reverse, because his capacity for using second- 
hand knowledge was so unique that it may be 
said of him as can be said of probably no other 
writer, that it is impossible to make a reason- 
able guess as to when his knowledge is first-hand 
and when it is not. 



88 louring in 1600 

Another subject which needs to be treated 
here, although at first sight it also seems out of 
place, is that of the characteristics of the islands 
of Europe as seen by foreigners; for among the 
advantages of choosing the sea must be reckoned 
acquaintance with those places which one would 
never get a glimpse of without a voyage; that is, 
those which ships touched at but which did not 
form parts of the tourist's objective. Far and 
away the chief of these were the islands of the 
Levant. The opinion that the tourists have of 
them is probably rose-coloured by the fact that 
these broke the monotony of a longer voyage than 
they had need of otherwise; but the fact remains 
that all agree in depicting them as the spots where 
human life was at its pleasantest. Of Chios, in 
particular, might be used the childlike phrase 
which the Italians used to express the height of 
happiness, — it was like touching heaven with 
one's fingers. Nowhere was there greater free- 
dom or greater pleasure. Such was Delia Valle's 
opinion, who calls it "the pleasure-place of the 
Archipelago and the garden of Greece"; nothing 
but singing, dancing, and talking with the ladies 
of the isle, not only in daytime but up to four or 
five in the morning. Their costume was the only 
thing in Chios that could have been improved and 
this seems to refer to the style only, for Lithgow 
says that they were so sumptuously apparelled 
that workmen's wives went in satin and taffety, 



On the TVater 89 

and cloth of gold, and silver, with jewelled rings 
and bracelets; and when he goes on to say that 
they were the most beautiful women he ever saw, 
it is worth remembering that he not only covered 
more ground in Europe, but visited a greater 
number of the islands of the Mediterranean 
than any of the others. Besides, there are so 
many to confirm it; and although three hundred 
years ago there was little of what we call apprecia- 
tion of nature, or rather, of the modern custom 
of definitely expressing such appreciation, there 
was no lack of appreciation, and expression of 
appreciation, of nature when taking a human 
and feminine form. Singing, too, seems to have 
been part of living hereabouts: in Crete, for in- 
stance, the men, women, and children of a house- 
hold would usually sing together for an hour after 
dinner. When there was a seamy side to their 
life it was associated with politics; in this same 
Crete Lithgow stayed for fifty-eight days and never 
saw a Greek leave his house unarmed: generally 
it was with a steel cap, a long sword, a bow, dag- 
ger, and target-shield. In Zante, too, labourers 
went to the fields armed; but then it must be 
taken into account that the men of Zante were 
peculiarly murderous; if a merchant refused to 
buy from them his life would be in danger: and 
also, it was under Venetian rule, a double evil; 
first, because it had no other object than that of 
benefitting Venetians, and secondly, it implied 



90 Touring in 1600 

opposition to the Turks, which was worse, much 
worse, than the rule of the Turks. Chios was 
under Turkish rule; so was Coos, the next hap- 
piest place, very rarely visited, but well worth it, 
partly for what Delia Valle calls the "Amore- 
volezza" of that generation, partly because there 
were still to be seen the houses of Hippocrates, 
Hercules, and Peleus, Achilles' father. At Corfu 
was the house of Judas; also his descendants, 
however much the latter denied their ancestry; 
and near Lesbos, the islet called Monte Sancto 
because it was thither that the Devil had borne 
Christ to show him all the kingdoms of the earth. 
Then there were all the natural curiosities which 
the tourist might see in the Levant and nowhere 
else; asbestos at Cyprus, likewise ladanum "gene- 
rated by the dew," and at Lemnos the "terra 
sigillata" famed throughout Europe for its heal- 
ing properties, an interesting example of an an- 
cient superstition taken over by Christianity; for 
the priestess of Artemis who had the charge of 
the sacred earth in Pliny's time had been suc- 
ceeded by the Christian priest whom the Turkish 
officials watched at work without interfering, in 
case there might be some rite which they did not 
know of and on the use of which the efficacy of 
the earth depended. 

So also, with volcanoes; it was only he who 
went by sea who saw any other than Vesuvius; 



On the TVater 91 

and in addition to their scientific, they had also 
a theological, attraction, being generally considered 
as mouths of hell, Stromboli, in particular, more 
continually active than the rest. Concerning 
Stromboli there is a curious tale which is worth 
borrowing from Sandys, how one Gresham, a 
London merchant, ascended the volcano one day, 
at noon, when the flames were wont to slacken, 
and heard a voice call out that the rich Antonio 
was coming. On returning to Palermo where there 
was a rich Antonio, well known, he learnt that 
the latter had died at the hour the voice had been 
heard, and the fact and hour were confirmed by 
the sailors who had accompanied Gresham, to 
Henry VIII, who questioned them. Gresham 
himself retired from business and gave away his 
property. 

Another Levant incident, characteristic, mys- 
terious, and one of Sandys' telling, moreover, 
is this. He was at Malta one day, alone on the 
seashore, and what he saw seemed like a part 
of a masque. A boat arrived ; in it, two old women. 
Out they stepped with grotesque gestures, and 
spread a Turkey carpet, on that a table-cloth, and 
on that victuals of the best. Then came another 
boat which set "a Gallant ashore with his two 
Amorosaes, attired like nymphs, with Lutes in 
their hands." But the "gallant" turned out to 
be a French captain and the nymphs far from 
spiritual. 



92 Touring in 1600 

Or again; once, on the way to Constantinople, 
they were near land and he made a day's excur- 
sion. Returning at evening, he found the captain 
lying dripping wet, struggling, it seemed, with 
death. The crew were all quarrelling, some on 
board, some on shore. "Amongst the rest there 
was a blind man who had married a young wife 
that would not let him lie with her and thereupon 
had undertaken this journey to complain unto the 
Patriarch. He, hearing his brother cry out at the 
receipt of a blow, guided to the place by the noise 
and thinking with his staff to have struck the 
striker, laid it on with such force that, meeting 
with nothing but air, he fell into the sea, and was 
with difficulty preserved from drowning. The 
clamour increased; and anon the captain, start- 
ing up as if of a sudden restored to life, like a mad- 
man skips into the boat, and drawing a Turkish 
scimitar, beginneth to lay about him (thinking 
that his vessel had been surprised by pirates): 
whereupon they all leaped into the sea, and diving 
under the water ascended outside the reach of his 
fury. Leaping ashore, he pursues my Greek guide, 
whom fear made too nimble for him, mounting 
a steep cliff which at another time he could have 
hardly ascended. Then turning upon me (who 
was only armed with stones) as God would have 
it, he stumbled, and there lay like a stone for 
two hours, that which had made them so quarrel- 
some being now the peace-maker. For it being 



On the TVater 93 

proclaimed death to bring wine into Constanti- 
nople and they loath to pour such good liquor into 
the sea, had made their bellies their overcharged 
vessels." 

But it would be doing the Levant injustice to 
let the last word on it be an explained miracle, 
and therefore you may be informed on the testi- 
mony of John Newberie, citizen and merchant of 
London, who, "being desirous to see the world," 
has become enrolled in the band of Purchas, His 
Pilgrims, that there was a small isle near Melos, 
to wit, the Isola de' Diavoli, uninhabited but by 
devils; and if any vessels are moored thereto, as 
may be done, the water being deep by the shore, 
the ropes loose their hold unless the sailors make 
a cross with every two cables. And once upon a 
time, when a Florentine galley was moored there 
without a cross, a loud voice was heard warning 
the sailors to row away. 

And lastly, this is what happened when a fune- 
ral had to take place at sea; an inventory of the 
deceased's goods was made, the ship's bell was 
rung twice, a fire-brand thrown into the sea, and 
the announcement made: "Gentlemen mariners, 

pray for the soul of poor whereby, through 

God's mercy, he may rest with the souls of the 
faithful." But it is pleasant to say that on the 
only occasion this form of burial is recorded the 
deceased was alive, if not kicking; he was at his 
post, the "look out," curled up asleep, as he 



94 Touring in 1600 

had been for forty-eight hours previously, sleep- 
ing off the effects of Greek wine. 

The amount of attention given to the other 
islands of the Mediterranean, Sicily, which may 
be considered part of Italy, excepted, might well 
be represented by saying nothing about them, 
but Cardinal de Retz's remark about Port Mahon, 
Minorca, is too characteristic of his age to be 
passed over; he praises it as the most beautiful 
haven of the Mediterranean, so beautiful that its 
scenery surpassed even that employed at Paris 
for the opera! 



CHAPTER IV 

CHRISTIAN EUROPE 

PART I 

EUROPEAN EUROPE 

From the report of divers curious and experienced persons I 
had been assured there was little more to be seen in the rest of 
the civil world after Italy, France and the Low Countries, but 
plain and prodigious barbarism. 

Evelyn, Diary (1645). 

THE route of the Average Tourist being 
determined by the considerations above- 
mentioned, he was naturally directed 
to those countries whose situation enabled them 
to influence the course of events in his fatherland, 
whose development and conditions contained 
the most pertinent lessons for him as a man and 
as a statesman, and whose climate, accessibility, 
and inhabitants were such as hindered travel- 
lers least. These countries were: Italy, France, 
the United Provinces (i. e. y Holland), the Empire, 
the Spanish Netherlands (corresponding to Bel- 
gium), England, Poland. This order is that in 
which they would probably have appeared to ar- 
range themselves according to their importance 
for the purposes under consideration. The omis- 
sion of England in the chapter heading is due, of 
course, to Evelyn having started thence; of the 



96 Touring in 1600 

Empire and Poland, to the date at which he is 
writing, near the close of the Thirty Years' War; a 
date which, while within the period with which 
this book has to deal, is later by nearly half a 
century than the central date, 1600, to which all its 
undated statements should be taken as referring. 
Whatever criticism might have been passed on 
this order of importance by this or that adviser, 
not one would have been found to dispute the 
preeminence of Italy. Whereas now there is no 
form of human effort in which the inhabitants of 
Italy have not been equalled or surpassed, it 
seemed then as if there had never been any in 
which they had been surpassed and very few in 
which they had been equalled. So far as Art and 
antiquities go, there will be no need to persuade 
anybody of the likelihood of that; nor probably, 
with regard to venerableness of religion or romance 
of history. But the very easiness of imagining 
the supremacy which would have been conceded 
Italy on these points tends to close the enquiry 
into the causes of its hold on men in times gone 
by, and consequently to obscure the fact that 
Italy then not only stood for all that Italy stands 
for now, but also in the place, or rather, places, 
now occupied by the most advanced States in 
their most advanced aspects; for everything, in 
fact, that made for progress on the lines considered 
most feasible or probable at the moment; for 
progress, not only in culture, but in commerce 



Christian Europe 97 

and commercial methods, in politics, in the science 
of war, in up-to-date handicraft, and, especially, 
in worldly wisdom. Even a baby-food was as- 
sured of greater respect if made from an Italian 
recipe, such as the paste made of bread-crumbs, 
wheat-meal, and olive-oil, of which De Thou 
nearly died. In short, if the value of Italy as the 
colonizer of Europe in regard to mental develop- 
ment belonged by this time to the past rather 
than to the present, its reputation as such must 
not be ante-dated, as is generally done, and as- 
cribed to the age when it most thoroughly de- 
served that reputation. Here, on the contrary, 
as usually, merit and credit are not contemporary. 
And there was plenty to deceive those who did 
not look far below the surface. In discussing poli- 
tics the newest set-phrases would be those 
brought into use by Italian writers; "balance of 
power," "reason of state," etc.; the word "sta- 
tus" itself, as a substitute for "Respublica," was 
both a sign of the times and of Italian influence. 1 
So with commercial terms, we find, for instance, 
the word "provvisione" (commission) being used 
as late as 1648, 2 by an Englishman who had 
never been to Italy, while the control of Italy 
over one of the later forms of the Renascence, 
that of the art of gardening, is indicated by the in- 
troduction of the word "florist" from the Italian 
during the seventeenth century. The only mod- 
ern author, moreover, whose acquaintance a Eu- 



98 Touring in 1600 

ropean schoolboy was certain to make, was the 
Italian versifier whom Shakespeare calls "good 
old Mantuan," and even if we look at things from 
to-day's standpoint the most remarkable profes- 
sorship of the period would surely be accounted 
that of Galileo at Padua, 1592-1610. In another 
respect, too, connected with education, the rela- 
tive maturity and crudeness of civilisation south 
and north of the Alps is even more apparent to- 
day than it was then. The "Trans-alpine" shared 
more or less Erasmus' belief in the power of words 
as a means of education, whereas in Italy, and 
in Italy alone, was it insisted that the influence of 
environment, personal and physical, is the factor 
compared to which all else is of but little account. 
The first theory is abandoned now by all who can 
afford to do so, the second is that of the best 
effort of to-day. 3 

As for the technique of war, more than half- 
way through the seventeenth century, when 
Louis XIV wanted the very best available talent 
to design the completion of the Louvre, it was to 
Rome that he sent, and the artist, Bernini, is 
recorded 4 as saying, to allay jealousy, that there 
was no need for Frenchmen to be ashamed of an 
Italian being called in for this purpose, seeing 
that in the kind of knowledge in which they ex- 
celled all Europe, that of war, their teachers were 
still Italians. And the modernity of the latter's 
reputation for supremacy in military knowledge 



Christian Europe 99 

is thrown into relief by a remark of Bertrandon 
de la Brocquiere, writing in 143 3, taken in con- 
junction with the above. The latter was a clear- 
headed Fleming of wide experience who, when 
drawing up a plan for the right composition of 
an army which should suffice to drive the Turks 
back, only mentions French, English, and Ger- 
man soldiers. 

As regards applied science, again, we find 
Evelyn writing of the harbour-works at Genoa, 
"of all the wonders of Italy, for the art and na- 
ture of the design, nothing parallels this." Now 
Evelyn was certainly not a man to underrate the 
rest of the wonders of Italy. As for comparisons 
outside of Italy, all Europe had by his time set- 
tled down to compete in the application of science 
to every-day life. And as to the products of the 
soil, is it not probable that if, nowadays, Euro- 
peans left the soil to take care of itself, and the 
day-labourer to take care of the seed and the pre- 
paration of the product, Italy would regain the 
first place as a producer of luxuries? 

Such points as these, just a few that have 
chanced to suggest themselves in the course of 
reading for other purposes, are merely put for- 
ward as typical of the relations existing between 
Italy and the rest of Europe; the Italians them- 
selves admitted their own superiority by the 
slightly contemptuous meaning that attached 
itself to their word "Transalpini," and very rare 



ioo Touring in 1600 

is it to find one of these "Transalpini" taking the 
view that Sir Philip Sidney and Fynes Moryson 
did, that the first characteristic of Italy was pre- 
tentiousness. On the contrary, it was assumed 
that little but experience could be so easily, or 
so satisfactorily, acquired elsewhere. Diverse 
forms of government, at least, could not be met 
with elsewhere in the same variety within such 
narrow limits. The south was what they termed 
a "province," i. e., a dependency held down by 
force, belonging to Spain; so, too, was Milan, 
with its surroundings. In the centre was a mon- 
arch, the Pope, who was both elected and "ab- 
solute," a term which had a specialised meaning, 
that of power unlimited except by the extent to 
which the holder made himself disliked. Further 
north were free cities, Lucca, Genoa; six hereditary 
principalities, Tuscany, Mantua, Urbino, Savoy, 
Modena, Parma; and lastly, the Republic of 
Venice with its miniature empire in Lombardy. 
And concerning Venice, there is this to be noted, 
that it was exhibiting solidity combined with 
elasticity to a degree all the more astonishing in 
"an impossible city in an impossible place"; 
which gave it a position not unlike that of Eng- 
land to-day, namely, that peculiarities of its 
"constitution" received an even greater degree 
of respect than they were entitled to and tended 
to be imitated by constitution-formulators of the 
period who expected to reproduce what had been 



Christian Europe 101 

achieved by geography and a national tempera- 
ment, by means of reproducing some of the formu- 
las that the latter had adopted. All of which was 
of great interest to the Average Tourist; and in 
consequence, if you happen to be reading one of 
his accounts of a tour, at the first mention of 
the word "Doge," skip twelve pages. 

What remains to be seen concerning Italy is 
— what were the details that mainly occupied 
the foreigner as student there. In which connec- 
tion the chief fact to be noted is that his stopping- 
places were invariably towns; and this not in 
Italy only, but throughout Europe. As regards 
the Average Tourist, this is fully accounted for 
by the objects he set before himself, but it is 
equally true of all. Bathing-places excepted, the 
only holiday resorts lay in the very last places 
where we should think of looking for them — in 
the suburbs. The Riviera, for instance, was no 
spot to delay in when Mohammedan pirates were 
forever coasting along in search of Christian 
slaves; and so on. But the essential explanation 
is to be sought in a census of Europe. The popu- 
lation of London exceeds that of most sixteenth- 
century States, and there are London suburbs 
which house more than any but the biggest six- 
teenth-century cities. Many villages consisted 
of no more than three or four houses; and even 
near Paris, of six or seven or eight; in Spain one 
might journey eight leagues without seeing a 



io2 Touring in 1600 

house at all. Whereas, therefore, the difficulty, 
and the pleasure, of a modern tour consists in es- 
caping from people, the difficulty, and the safety, 
of all tourists in 1600 lay in reaching them. 

Crossing the Alps, then, and making for the 
towns, one came, say, upon Turin; not a town that 
would detain one, but a point of the parting of 
the ways. Hence to Rome, the direct way lay 
through Genoa; a second via Milan and Bologna, 
a day's journey longer but yielding the advantage 
of seeing those two cities; while the third way, the 
longest but most comfortable and no more expen- 
sive, lay down the Po to Ferrara, thence to Venice, 
thence by sea to Ancona, by land to Loreto, and 
so to Rome. The two former routes converged at 
Florence. Of these two the longer would be chosen 
either going or returning. Milan must no more 
be missed than Rome. It was the city of all Eu- 
rope on which the question of peace and war per- 
manently depended ; being the key to the most de- 
bateable district. And as such, it may be imagined 
what the castle was then from what it is even in its 
present state as a sort of museum of military archi- 
tecture. Then it was alive with the finest soldiers 
of the age, Spaniards; a small town, complete in 
itself, with rows of shops and five market-places. 
And the city itself was recognised as unsurpassed 
as a school both for the accomplishments that 
befitted a gentleman and for craftsmanship; for 



Christian Europe 103 

everything, in fact, that made life possible or 
pleasant. Yet Bologna had the advantage of it 
in one respect, in possessing a University; to 
matriculate in an Italian university continued an 
inexpressible honour to the "Transalpini," evi- 
dent though it was that the merest smattering of 
book-knowledge was sufficient to pass; and even 
though the Italian said openly, "We take the fees, 
and send back an ass in a doctor's gown." Florence 
again, had its own supremacy; the most attrac- 
tive town in the district where the best Italian 
was supposed to be spoken. Siena was preferred 
by purists for language, but the slight distinction 
was outweighed by just those charms which have 
not been impaired by age. One more has indeed 
been added that might be expected to have ex- 
isted then, but did not; what Ben Jonson wrote in 
"Volpone" in summing up the qualities of the 
poets of Italy and eulogising Guarini. 

Dante is hard and few can understand him 

was but an echo of the Italians' own opinion. 
" Like Dante's ' Inferno ' which no man under- 
standeth " was a Venetian Senator's description 
of Henry IV's policy in 1606. 5 

Assuming the third route to be the one chosen, 
there was Ferrara to pass, but not to stay at 
when Venice was almost in sight — Venice in 
1600! to have been a witness of that would make 
it well worth while to have been dead for the past 






i©4 Touring in 1600 

three hundred years. The essence of the change 
is best expressed in the words of Mr. L. P. Smith 
in his "Life and Letters of Sir Henry Wotton," 
when he speaks of it as "a shell on the shores of 
the Adriatic deserted by the wonderful organism 
that once inhabited it." Outward and visible 
signs of the vividness and breadth of its life were 
two in particular; the infinite variety and number 
of persons and nationalities that filled its streets 
with colour and contrast and a sense of new worlds 
and of mystery in the midst of commerce; and 
secondly, the Arsenal. In all Europe there was 
not such another organisation as the Arsenal; 
not one so completely prepared with everything 
that went to the fitting out of a fleet, and very few 
so well able to fit out an army. Villamont was 
shown twenty-five great galleasses and eighty- 
five galleys, all of them so new that they had not 
been out to sea. Probably, also, its managers 
were the greatest direct employers of labour in 
Christendom; 2880 is one of the more moderate 
estimates of those permanently at work, includ- 
ing the 200 old women always mending sails, a 
number increased to 700 at times; and all these 
employees were assured of a pension from the 
State when past work, an otherwise unheard-of 
custom then, in practice, at least. It had its 
place, too, in the tourist's mythology; one after 
another repeating the tale how when Henry III 
of France visited Venice, a galley was built and 



. 



Christian Europe 105 

three cannon turned out while he was at dinner. 
Yet Montaigne has something to say about 
Venice that cancels all the intervening years and 
changes, and brings him into touch with us. He 
went his way towards it with the highest expecta- 
tions, explored it eagerly, recollected it with the 
keenest pleasure: yet at the end of his second day 
there his feeling was one of disappointment. It 
maybe taken as characteristic that he alone should 
experience then what seems more appropriate to 
the present; more probably, other visitors shared 
it but were too much subject to convention to say 
so; or, perhaps, re-writing their experiences later at 
home, as they generally did, they record their later 
thought only, whereas Montaigne left his unre- 
vised and unashamed. This explanation seems the 
more reasonable inasmuch as the causes of the feel- 
ing had already come into being. On the surface 
the sight rested satisfied, while the imagination re- 
mained as hungry as ever. In a country, France, 
for instance, the tourist always had a consciousness 
of towns and districts unseen, all of which had con- 
tributed to the past, for evidence of the existence 
of which the imagination looks, however uncon- 
sciously; but after two days in Venice, all that is 
important and visible may seem to have been seen; 
no suggestion of anything beyond, not even the 
ruins of a half-buried city, as at Rome. It is true it 
was clear then that the word "Venice" meant an 
Empire as well as a city, though by the time the 



106 'Touring in 1600 

tourist had reached the city, he had passed through 
the conquests, barring an island or two in the Le- 
vant which the Turks were in course of subtracting. 
Yet the third meaning of the name was as dim to 
him as both the second and the third are to most 
of us, that of the source of an Empire, the whole 
collection of islands in the lagoons, whose larger 
life had already been drained away into the cen- 
tral settlement, but where Venice and its history 
were equally discoverable — but not in two days. 
Another similarity between Venice of old and 
of to-day lies in the fact that the gondoliers knew 
much better than the visitors whither the latter 
wanted to go and took them there, with, or 
against, orders; only with this difference, that 
then it was always to the house of the courtesan 
in whose pay he was. 

When the tourist had released himself and was 
proceeding on his way to Rome there were the 
beacons dotted along the coast for him to notice, 
beacons for signalling the sighting of a Turk or 
corsair vessel from south to north in a few hours. 
Ravenna received little notice, Rimini less, but 
Ancona was kept in the memory by one of those 
rhymes characteristic of the contemporary guide- 
book. 

Unus Deus, Una Roma, 

Unus turris, in Cremona, 

Una portus, in Ancona. 

And then Loreto. Here it must be remembered, 



Christian Europe 107 

first of all, that it was unpardonable to ask for a 
meal before visiting the " Santa Casa." The town 
was little more than one long street, well forti- 
fied by reason of the treasure that the offerings 
represented. Bassompierre relates in his memoirs 
how he was invited to be one of the witnesses at 
the quarterly offering of the poor-box one Christ- 
mas; the contents amounted to 6000 crowns (in 
our money about £7500); this for one quarter 
only. Many men, and towns too, were represented 
by models of themselves in solid silver. As to 
which votive offerings Montaigne makes an as- 
sertion, unconfirmed by any one else but with this 
in its favour, that no tourist but himself gives any 
details concerning a valuable offering from him- 
self made at Loreto. He says that the craftsmen 
refuse to take any payment for such articles be- 
yond the cost of the materials. It seems incredible 
that a town which had been the resort of pilgrims 
for more than two centuries should not have be- 
come demoralised, but Montaigne adds that the 
officials refused tips, or received them unwillingly; 
and certainly no one complains of extortion. 

If the tourist was lucky enough to see a ship- 
load of pilgrims arriving from the farther coast 
of the Adriatic, it would be worth while to stay 
and watch, for as soon as Loreto came in sight 
they rose and cried out without ceasing from that 
moment until they reached the "Santa Casa," 
beseeching the Madonna to return to Fiume, 



108 "Touring in 1600 

where, once upon a time, so the tale ran, her 
house had stood. Leaving Loreto, not forgetting, 
of course, to wear the pilgrim's badge peculiar to 
the shrine — a leaden image of Our Lady sur- 
mounted by three porcupine quills fastened to- 
gether with a silk thread, a tiny flag on each 
quill — leaving Loreto, then, a detour was often 
made to visit Assisi, joining the main road again 
at Spoleto. And so to Rome, where the new ar- 
rival, if a Roman Catholic, should first make his 
way to the Scale Sante to return thanks for his 
preservation during the past journey; where, too, 
at his departure, he should pray for assistance on 
the one to come. 

It made considerable difference to his recol- 
lections of Rome what date it was within this 
period that he arrived. If at the beginning, he 
would have found St. Peter's half-finished and 
the interior in a state better suited to a pig-sty; 
and the rest of the city to match; the most con- 
fident Protestant would be gratified to find him- 
self scandalised beyond expectation. By 1601 
St. Peter's was practically in all its glory, the 
city unsurpassed in its care for the needy and 
sick, and of average morality. In the interval, too, 
the catacombs had been discovered, and though 
Bosio, the explorer of them, did not publish the 
results of his explorations till 1632 they became 
more accessible meanwhile; continuing, however, 
to be regarded as isolated "crypts." It was his 



Christian Europe 109 

book "Roma Sotterranea" that first caused them 
to be considered collectively; and it was under 
that name that Evelyn paid his visit to them 
in 1645, the first of these tourists to make 
anything that can be called an excursion among 
them. He entered through a burrow in a corn- 
field two miles from the city, so small that he had 
to crawl on his stomach for the first twenty paces. 
But the main feature of the Rome of 1600 was 
still its power. Not simply influence in the pre- 
sent as a result of power in the past, but the 
strength of age, middle-age, and youth existing in 
unison. To begin with, their reverence for Ancient 
Rome was greater than ours; an effect partly of 
their theory of history, partly of the narrower lim- 
its of their acquaintance with the materials of his- 
tory. For the former cause, it was bound to be 
an axiom of history as long as the Bible remained 
authoritative as a statement of historical fact, 
that mankind had proceeded from good to bad, 
and from bad to worse, as time had advanced. 
And whatever, in the thought of the age, tended 
to shake this view, was held in check by the dis- 
coveries, in different, previously unexplored, parts 
of the world, of communities which seemed to be 
possessed at once of a higher morality and also 
of a more primitive civilisation, than the Euro- 
pean. It is probably impossible for us to realise 
the alteration that the theory of evolution has in- 
troduced into current ideas about history. 



i io Touring in 1600 



For the second cause, the greatness of the Ro- 
man Empire appeared the greater for their hav- 
ing so little with which to compare it. The em- 
pire of the Ottomans had, it is true, by now 
eclipsed it; but Spain's was a vague wilderness, 
inhabited by savages; the Persian of old they 
only knew through the doctored accounts of the 
Latin writers; and of the overwhelming anti- 
quity and extent of the Chinese they had no real 
knowledge at all. All, the Turkish excepted, that 
were not shadowy to them, were what Rome had 
obliterated, the moral effect of which, associated, 
as it must needs be, with the name of the city, 
endured as the chief asset of the Papal power. 
If any one then had taken Gibbon's view, that the 
remains of the Roman Empire were approaching 
dissolution, it would only have been because he 
thought that the end of the world was equally 
near. And this unbroken continuity of power 
did not merely exist, but was alive with fresh 
life. Nothing had replaced Rome; there was no- 
thing to replace it; there was no need to replace 
it, since there was nothing effete nor slack about 
it, however much corruption was patent to the 
"Reformed." 

The relations between visitors who were "Re- 
formed" and Rome is another interesting fea- 
ture of the tourist-life of the time when both were 
militant and a large proportion of tourists anti- 
Catholic. Much depended on the reigning Pope. 



Christian Europe 1 1 1 

In the time of Sixtus V (1585-90) Protestants 
came in fear, lived in disguise, and sought pro- 
tection; Englishmen from Cardinal Allen, who 
readily granted it for a few days, to enable them 
to see the antiquities. Clement VIII (1 592-1 605) 
was much more lenient, yet Moryson thought it 
advisable even then to pass for a Frenchman, 
and to safeguard himself through Cardinal Allen, 
as well; also to leave before Easter, when there 
was a house-to-house visitation to enquire if all 
were communicants. Precautions, on the other 
hand, might be overdone. It was all very well to 
make a practice, as one did, of going through a 
church on the way to his morning drink, in case 
spies were about, but to tell one's host, as a cer- 
tain German did, on returning home from an 
afternoon walk, that he had just been to mass, 
when all the masses were said in the morning, 
was going too far! And conforming to custom 
had its own dangers, too, when it formed a habit, 
as Moryson found, who, on entering a church at 
Geneva, reached out his hand towards the poor- 
box in mistake for the holy-water stoop to which 
he had accustomed himself; all the more embar- 
rassing a mistake for his being in the company 
of Theodore Beza. 

Gregory XV (1621-3) — to return to the Popes 
— forbade even the other princes of Italy to ad- 
mit any but Roman Catholics to their dominions ; 
and there were, besides, the already-mentioned 



112 



Touring in 1600 



prohibitions from the authorities at home. The 
state of affairs in general may be taken as that 
suggested by the localisation of Shakespeare's 
plays. Two-thirds of his scenes are laid abroad, 
in Italy more frequently than elsewhere outside 
England: yet his contemporary Italy is practically 
always the North, the South being reserved for 
the " classical " period. Nevertheless, it may safely 
be assumed that the danger was not quite so 
great as the fear, and that where the former was 
incurred, the sufferer had only himself to blame. 
Whether or no the high officials at Rome were 
faulty in dogma or in virtue, they were usually 
both men of the world and gentlemen. Mon- 
taigne's belongings, for example, provided the 
searchers with plenty of material for a charge of 
heresy, but a short conversation overcame all 
difficulties. And one William Davis, an English 
sailor 6 who fell ill at Rome in 1598, found by ex- 
perience that a Protestant who was civil would be 
cared for in a hospital free and given food and 
money on leaving. The more usual kind of be- 
haviour has already been illustrated; only it must 
not be imagined that the incautiousness and in- 
civility which turned the Protestant into a martyr 
were less conspicuous among other sects. By the 
law of Geneva a three-days stay was permitted 
to travellers of every creed. The poet-philosopher, 
Giordano Bruno, and the Jesuit missionary, Par- 
sons, both rested there; their zeal prescribed the 



Christian Europe 1 1 3 



extremes of controversial outrage in return for 
tolerance and courtesy. 

But Rome and its associations have had more 
than their share of attention. Imagine, then, the 
traveller started on the invariable excursion to 
Naples, the equal of Milan as a finishing school, 
and one of the few cities with underground drain- 
age. Some, but not many, might go on to Sicily; 
to Syracuse for the feast of Santa Lucia, for choice.' 
But what with robbers and corsair-raids, there 
was no travelling there without a strong guard, 
and the towns were so unsafe that Messina seems 
to have been the first of European towns to evolve 
a combined bank and safe-deposit under munici- 
pal guarantee; established by 1611, when Sandys 
noticed it. Those who did reach Sicily usually 
visited Malta as well; small boats with five rowers 
left about two hours before sunset, and if no Turk- 
ish sail was sighted, went on, reaching Malta 
about dawn. 

But the foregoing presupposes the Mont-Cenis 
route into Italy, and leaves out three towns which 
must be included: Padua, Verona, and Bergamo. 
Padua had its university, the most-visited in Eu- 
rope; Verona, its relics of Roman times, which com- 
manded an attention that they now have to share 
with the romantic aspects of medieval history, 
romance that sixteenth-century people were not 
inclined to be attracted by, having too first- 
hand an acquaintance with feuds to look at their 






1 14 Touring in 1600 

picturesque side. Moreover, the visible remains 
of these feuds, here and in every Italian city, 
showed a ludicrous side, for in so far as they did 
not take the form of assassination by the foulest 
means, they consisted in the two parties of re- 
tainers parading the town, armed with an absurd 
completeness, each one confining itself to certain 
quarters of the town by tacit agreement in order 
to render collisions impossible. The habits drama- 
tised in the first scene of " Romeo and Juliet" 
are those of Londoners, in so far as they are at all 
contemporary. The third town, Bergamo, thou- 
sands pass by now, year by year, within a few 
miles, never knowing what they miss by not stop- 
ping, but then it lay on the north-and-south road 
as much as any town in Italy, and not even the 
Frankfort fair surpassed that of Bergamo, Au- 
gust 25 and the following week, when lucky was 
he who could find sleeping-room in a stable. 

Yet however complete was the outfit obtain- 
able across the Alps, there remained other coun- 
tries which were factors in politics; and which 
possessed, moreover, histories, courts, universi- 
ties, and men of learning; fewer temptations, pos- 
sibly, and more "true religion." Of these France 
was the one the most easily accessible to a greater 
number. As to its boundaries, they were some- 
what narrower in almost every direction than at 
present; especially southeastwards; Lyons was 



Christian Europe 1 1 5 

a frontier-town. Its attractions lay principally 
in Paris, the only city north of the Alps compar- 
able to Milan as a centre for the training of a man 
for a courtly, or an international, life; and in the 
government, which, in its extreme centralisation 
and in its idealisation of monarchy, corresponded 
most closely with the more practicable ideals of 
the day. 

In planning a route through France it was ad- 
visable to go straight to Paris, if only for a few 
days, since to have been in Paris gave one a po- 
sition in the provinces. As a place to stay at, 
Orleans was really far more frequently chosen 
by foreigners than Paris. Its university was as 
international as any in Europe, and ahead of any 
other in maintaining a circulating library for 
students, which lent any book on a receipt being 
given for it; "an extraordinary custom " says 
Evelyn. Here, too, began the district reputed 
best for spoken French, which brought strangers 
to stay at Blois and Tours and Saumur as well; 
to Saumur, perhaps, more than to the other two, 
by reason of the number and quality of its teach- 
ers on all subjects; it was a centre for Protest- 
antism and learning in combination. Poictiers for 
law, Montpellier for medicine; and there is an 
end of the towns that the student-tourist abided 
in. For the country in general it should be added 
that just here, where centralisation and auto- 
cracy were developing most rapidly and thor- 



1 16 Touring in 1600 

oughly, was reckoned as the most decidedly free 
region of Europe, "liberty," according to six- 
teenth-century standards, depending not on ad- 
ministration being either lenient or constitutional, 
but on the extent to which the individual was not 
interfered with by social conventions. Political 
tyranny was not regarded as objectionable on prin- 
ciple, except by authors. 

The United Provinces differed in no note- 
worthy respect from Holland of to-day, so far as 
territory goes, and during the earlier part of this 
period attracted but little attention; but as time 
went on and from imminent destruction they 
escaped into independence, they drew the tour- 
ist, first out of curiosity and subsequently as a 
State which compelled the study of every one who 
needed to observe the present and foresee the 
future. Many minor interests, too, brought indi- 
viduals thither, as a result of Dutch enterprise. 
We find, for example, Sir William Brereton sur- 
veying the country in order to understand their 
methods of decoying wild-fowl; and Sir Richard 
Weston, who introduced locks into English rivers 
and the rotation of crops into English agriculture, 
learning both these novelties there. And though 
no one as yet went abroad to study the possibili- 
ties of practical philanthropy, there were many 
who noted, with an admiration that doubtless 
bore fruit, their charitable institutions of all kinds, 
unequalled then outside Rome. In one respect 



Christian Europe i 1 7 

they were ahead of Italy: the suddenness of their 
prosperity resulted in the latest improvements 
in laying out towns — wider streets and greater 
regularity being more in evidence there than 
elsewhere. So uniform was the appearance of 
the houses, says one, that they seemed to have 
been all built by the same workmen at the same 
time; whereas the Italian towns, even in re-build- 
ing, made no such experiments, because the old 
narrow streets formed the best safeguard against 
the surprise-attack of which they lived in con- 
stant dread, especially from the Turks' corsairs. 
No one town could claim precedence, though 
Amsterdam, even as early as 1600, struck De 
Rohan as equalled by few in Europe for wealth 
and beauty; it was rather the excellence and fre- 
quency of the towns that occasioned remark — 
twenty-nine fine ones within sixty leagues of 
boundary; together with the number of storks 
which the municipalities cherished, as animals 
known to harbour a preference for places where 
representative government flourished. 

As for the Empire, it meant many different 
things to different visitors. The variety of terri- 
tory and government was absolutely bewilder- 
ing, yet certain marked cross-divisions presented 
themselves, such as the triple division of it into 
upper Germany, Hansa League (with Saxony), 
and frontier; the frontier being those districts 
which were forever either meeting, or fearing, a 



1 1 8 Touring in 1600 

Turkish invasion. Then there was division ac- 
cording to politics, Catholic, Reformed, Protest- 
ant, to be studied by the Average Tourist for 
purposes of alliance, and a third classification ac- 
cording to form of government, the imperial au- 
thority, venerable and increasingly vague; princes; 
"free" towns. The first system of division has, 
however, most in common with the greater num- 
ber of foreigners' interests, and of its three sub- 
divisions upper Germany was paid the greatest 
attention, partly because it lay across so many 
routes, partly because there was so much to see. 
It gives the dominant note to references to Ger- 
man-speaking countries in the travel-literature 
of the day, a note of peaceful energy and hopeful 
prosperity. While not recommended to these 
travellers' notice by a well-known past such as 
the greater coherence of France and Italy had en- 
abled historians to evolve for them, those who 
lingered there, as most did, saw that its possessions, 
human and non-human, gave it a present inter- 
est and a promise not surpassed elsewhere. The 
Germany of the last fifty years of the sixteenth 
century is practically ignored by modern Eng- 
lish historians : the story of its continual activity 
and of its continuous relations with England con- 
tain none of those sensational hindrances to the 
advance of civilisation with which historians 
concern themselves, but the frequent references 
to those relations by the contemporary historian 



Christian Europe 1 19 

of Queen Elizabeth's reign, William Camden, 
bear witness to the current opinion and know- 
ledge which found expression in the number of 
visitors from all quarters and the attention they 
devote to it in relation to that accorded to other 
countries. 

Among the towns of the Empire Augsburg was 
easily first; its finest street was the finest street 
in Europe, with roofs of copper; Nuremburg ran 
it close in many ways but had nothing to show in 
comparison with that one street. The cause of 
Augsburg's preeminence was its being the home 
of the Fuggers, the greatest financiers of Europe, 
but with their decline one function of the town 
that meant much in the way of attracting way- 
farers, that of being the General-Post-Office for 
correspondence between Italy and Central Eu- 
rope, passed to Frankfurt. The frequency of the 
use of stone as house-building material in these 
towns of Upper Germany and the show of bur- 
nished pewter and brass that was the pride of 
each inhabitant of standing, who let his huge 
hall-door lie open all day to exhibit it, were details 
which the Average Tourist would not overlook 
if he was observing as he ought where the wealth 
and security prevailed that were valuable in an 
ally. Thus did Strassburg fix itself in De Rohan's 
recollections . Democracy, to him, was a barely cred- 
ible superstition; yet nowhere was he more courte- 
ously treated, nowhere did he see completer prepa- 



1 20 Touring in 1600 

rations against a long siege, nor any better arsenal, 
a model of cleanliness, orderliness, and efficiency. 
Neither was it lost on him that amongst all their 
collection of cannon there was not one for siege 
purposes; their aim was defence, not offence. As 
little to be ignored as the others was Ulm. A 
feature of the age was the development of the 
methods of water-supply in towns; Ulm was the 
centre for this industry; even Augsburg's water- 
supply had been planned there. And it was equally 
the leader in woodwork. 

Similar characteristics would be found re- 
peated on a somewhat less striking scale among 
the Hansa towns, with Liibeck ranking first 
in pleasantness by general consent. A specially 
charming feature lay in the number of swans 
swimming in the moats, though no Englishman so 
much as mentions them; doubtless because the one 
town that excelled it in this respect was London. 
Going east, the various capitals would provide 
each its own object-lesson, and, collectively, 
would illustrate the absence of avarice among 
German rulers as contrasted with the princes of 
Italy. Saxony formed the only exception and 
Dresden showed it. In spite of it being the last 
big town that Hentzner visited, its armoury 
aroused more enthusiasm in him than anything 
except the gardens of Naples and the all-sufficiency 
of Milan; and Moryson confirms this, adding also 
that the stable was the finest he had seen, with 



Christian Europe 1 2 1 

its 136 horses, all foreigners (the German horses 
had another stable to themselves), each with a 
glazed window and a green curtain in front of his 
nose, a red cloth, an iron rack, a copper manger, 
a brass shower-bath, and a separate cupboard 
for his trappings. 

No Protestant who reached Dresden would 
miss Wittenberg, but the contrast must have 
been painful; poor and very dirty; the dwellers 
therein mainly students, prostitutes, and pigs, 
recalling the verses in use concerning Angers — 
Basse ville, hauts clochers, 
Riches putaines, pauvres escoliers. 

Leipzig was in favour for the purity of its German 
and Munich for pleasure, but Prague was an- 
other disappointment in spite of the Emperor liv- 
ing there; few stone houses and the wooden ones 
rough, and so filthy that the saying ran that the 
Turks would never take it despite the feebleness 
of its fortifications, because it was so well-guarded 
by its stenches; much as a Frenchman remarked 
at this time of Massa, between Genoa and Pisa, 
that it had a castle, but its chief defence was its 
fleas. Vienna was likewise far too well defended 
to attract visitors; a frontier-town against the 
Turks, always garrisoned by mercenaries and its 
streets unsafe in consequence. 

To go on to the Spanish Netherlands, they were 
bound to be passed and re-passed in the course 
of the work of Europe, for geographical reasons, 



122 Touring in 1600 

but still more so as a storm-centre of European 
politics. Nevertheless, the tourist, however seri- 
ous, did not stay there long. The viceroy's business 
was generalship, and consequently there was no 
settled court: little to note, in fact, but the Span- 
ish infantry at work and the effects of that; towns 
in ruins, dwindling trade. Yet the localisation 
of the war was intermittent enough not to inter- 
fere with the travellers from Upper Germany 
making a practice of reaching France through 
this district, according to Zinzerling, rather than 
direct, a habit resulting not only from the attrac- 
tions that remained to Flemish towns, but still 
more from the direct route through Burgundy hav- 
ing become a highway of German mercenaries into 
France. 

Moreover, no one who knew his business as a 
sight-seer omitted Antwerp. Trade and political 
importance had for some time been deserting it 
until it suggested to Howell in 1619 a a disconso- 
late Widow, or a superannuated Virgin that hath 
lost her Lover," but in 1600 it had not passed a 
state of mellowness without stagnation, with 
traces of its greatness fresh. Every visitor re- 
peats the same idea — " the most beautiful town 
in Europe"; and not in the same formula, as 
would result from the idea being a guide's com- 
monplace, but in words drawn from his own ex- 
perience: "as seen from the cathedral tower the 
most beautiful town after Constantinople," says 



GATE OF ST. GEORGE, ANTWERP 

The gate as it appeared about the middle of the sixteenth century 
(Peter Bruegel the elder: Bihl. Royale de Belgique), showing also the 
OVered Waggon which was practically the only land conveyance 
in use, apart from litters. 



Christian Europe 123 

one; or Lithgow, extolling Damascus, "the most 
beautiful city in Asia," compares it, for every 
respect save style of architecture, to "that match- 
less pattern and mirror of beauty, Antwerp." It 
would seem to have been the first town to turn 
its fortifications into promenades, laid out in 
walks and planted with trees. 7 The citadel, too, 
was the finest out of Italy, on the word of a Vene- 
tian ambassador. 

Elizabethan England, on the other hand, was 
rendered still more remarkable by possessing 
no fortresses at all. Two exceptions, Berwick and 
the Tower of London, served but to call atten- 
tion to the rule, the Tower in particular, whose 
out-of-date character in the matter of defences 
greatly amused connoisseurs. One Venetian am- 
bassador, indeed, with this fact in his mind, to- 
gether with the miscellaneous character of its 
contents, describes it as not so much a fortress 
as a "sicuro deposito" — a safe-deposit. 8 The 
peacefulness which brought about this state of 
things is still borne witness to by the large glazed 
windows on the ground floors of Elizabethan 
country-houses, but no foreigner remarks on that 
in the presence of the other more striking points 
that testified to it then. Foscarini, the successor 
of the ambassador just referred to, had occasion 
to traverse the length of England in 1613. Writ- 
ing home 9 he remarks on five facts concerning 
the country he passes through which seemed par- 



1 24 ^Touring in 1600 

ticularly noteworthy: (i) No unfruitful land 
throughout; (2) Every eight or ten miles a town 
comparable to a good Italian town (this was on the 
post- road to Scotland); (3) Number of navigable 
rivers; (4) and of beautiful churches; (5) No mer- 
cenary soldiers. 

To make it clear why the visitor should be so 
specially struck by these features, it is necessary 
to recall how differently matters stood abroad. 

During this period two thirty-year civil wars 
broke out in Europe, one in each half of the period, 
the first in France while the Empire was at peace, 
the second in the Empire while France was at 
peace. Between these two came twenty years of 
comparative quiet, but never a year when war 
was not to be seen in progress, or its effects still 
horribly new, in the course of a Continental tour. 
Incidentally, it may be pointed out that this pe- 
culiarly even distribution of peace and war gives 
the writings of travellers in Europe at this time 
striking value in relation to the effects of war and 
peace, not only in themselves but also as to their 
special characteristics in the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth centuries. No tourist came into contact 
with both wars; almost every tourist saw some- 
thing of one district under the influence of war 
or of peace, while some other is seeing another 
district in an opposite state. There remains, 
therefore, in their writings, a continuous comment 
on each other; so continuous and so unconscious 



Christian Europe 125 

as to leave no room for this or that man's bias to 
influence the general impression. 

Yet striking as the peacefulness of England 
was, it probably lessened rather than heightened 
what degree of attraction England possessed; 
since with war so normal a condition, war and its 
incidentals became a primary object of study even 
to those who did not profess soldiership. Neither 
did any but the Dutch need to learn the language 
of the country, which was what induced so many 
to make a lengthy stay in Tuscany and in Tou- 
raine. Neither was England a thoroughfare. 
Nor, even, were the recent achievements of Eng- 
lishmen more than a minor cause of the consider- 
able influx of visitors; not, at least, apart from 
the idea which is best expressed, perhaps, in the 
private letter of an Englishman writing from 
Aleppo: "Your last letter made me exceeding 
sorrowful, for therein you acquainted me with 
the death of blessed Queen Elizabeth, at the 
hearing whereof not only I and our English na- 
tion [i_. e.j the residents] mourned, but many 
other Christians who were never in Christendom, 
but born and brought up in heathen countries, 
wept to hear of her death, and said that she was 
the most famous queen that ever they heard or 
read of since the world began." 10 

For the "Virgin Queen" was a far greater 
marvel to contemporaries than to posterity. Ex- 
cept for her namesake of Spain, a century earlier, 



1 26 ^Touring in 1600 

who throughout her political life had been the ally 
and wife of one of the cleverest statesmen of the 
age, there was no instance since the mistiest past 
of a queen-regnant a leader of men. At her acces- 
sion civil war or conquest seemed inevitable and 
insolvency was a fact: yet before her death the 
bond of London "is," writes one of the chief fi- 
nanciers of the time, 11 "the first to-day [1595] in 
Europe," and she had added victory abroad to 
peace at home. To say "she had added" suggests 
nowadays the phraseology of the lady's paper, but 
it does really express not only the convention 
which the tourist may be taken as accepting but 
also the belief of reasonable men of the time. 

It is true that many denied her right to the 
title of "Queen," or, indeed, to that of "Virgin"; 
but no one had the opportunity of doubting that 
both claims belonged to that secondary order of 
facts known as "historical." And just as her po- 
sition as sovereign, and a strikingly successful 
one, was more wonderful then than it seems to- 
day, so too did her celibacy assure her of more 
reverence than we should instinctively concede. 
The mediaeval idealisation of virginity, one of the 
most beneficial, perhaps, of all the ideas of the 
past that the Reformation killed, ensured a place 
in the life of the world, and the self-respect con- 
tingent on that, for all the unmarried women 
whose counterparts since have had no assistance 
socially from any convention, from nothing but 



Christian Europe 127 

their own individuality. But this idea, though 
dying, was not dead; and, as is the way with 
ideas, challenged attention all the more definitely 
for ceasing to be taken for granted. 

These two facts, then, glorified Elizabeth in the 
eyes of foreigners; first, that she was a queen and 
a great ruler when effective queenship was half 
a myth; secondly, that she remained unmarried 
when virginity, considered as a virtue, was, so to 
speak, due to have its last flicker before finally 
dying down. The reign of James I was a sort of 
after-glow, except in so far as he had a reputation 
as a philosopher-king. 

These ideas have a marked effect on the visitor's 
itinerary. He hurried, as a rule, to London, and 
thence, if the court was away, to that one of the 
palaces which was in use for the time being. The 
other country palaces, none far from London, 
would receive a visit, at any rate Windsor and 
Hampton Court; Oxford probably, Cambridge 
possibly, and there an end. Of Scotland and Wales 
it can only be said that the former was practi- 
cally ignored except by a few Frenchmen, as a 
result of the ancient alliance; while to Wales they 
paid as little attention as the semi-Welsh queen 
did — none at all. 

Among the foreigners who have given us their 
impressions of England are several who have 
much that is of interest to say and yet who seem 
to have been entirely overlooked. Nevertheless, 



1 28 Touring in 1600 

these pages are already more numerous than the 
relative importance of England warrants. Let 
us therefore take but one, and that one the briefest; 
the more so since he is the likeliest to continue 
to be overlooked, writing as he did in Polish, from 
which hitherto no translation seems to have been 
made, not even in paraphrase. 

Jakob Sobieski, the only man who was ever 
four times Marshal of the Polish Diet, travelled 
all over Europe in his youth. Henry IV of France 
made a personal friend of him, and it was at Paris 
that he spent more time than elsewhere, where, 
eventually, he witnessed the assassination of the 
king and was nearly lynched himself on the spot 
by the mob who took it into their heads to re- 
gard him as the murderer. However, he not only 
escaped, but after justice had been done on Ra- 
vaillac by his being torn asunder by horses, Sobi- 
eski had an invitation to dinner from a bootmaker 
who had collected certain pieces of Ravaillac and 
was arranging a loyal dinner-party at which they 
were to form the chief dish. 

It was in the previous year (1609) that he 
visited England in the train of Myszkowski, the 
Marshal, negotiations being then in progress for 
the marriage of James I's daughter Elizabeth to 
Wladislas, son of the King of Poland. Sobieski, 
very young and very Catholic, was easily enough 
taken in by appearances to speak of James I as a 
model king, and to accept without question the 



Christian Europe 129 

declaration of the English Catholics that things 
had improved greatly since the death of the "se- 
vere and overbearing Queen Elizabeth." But 
it must be borne in mind that the King had not 
yet come to the bottom of the Treasury. One of 
Sobieski's remarks — that the Palace at West- 
minster is finer inside than outside — is an inter- 
esting comment on the impoverishment of the 
Crown that set in, if taken in conjunction with 
the remark of Golnitz of Danzig, less than ten 
years later, who says exactly the opposite. In 
comparing the palaces around Paris with those 
of the English king, he says that the former are 
fine externally, but contain many rooms in which 
a respectable German would not care to receive 
an acquaintance; cobwebs, unpolished woodwork, 
walls in disrepair. One thing that scandalised 
Sobieski greatly was that in St. Paul's he found 
buying and selling going on, a statement confirmed 
by a Venetian ambassador here in 1607, who says 
that London possesses many fine churches but 
that these are mostly used for nothing but driving 
bargains in. 12 

Sobieski's business, however, lay at the court, 
and the court was out of town: the King at one 
palace, the Queen at another, Princess Elizabeth 
at a third. On paying their respects to the last- 
named a curiously characteristic thing happened; 
her chamberlain met them and asked in what 
language they would speak with the Princess, 



1 30 Touring in 1600 

French, Italian, or Latin; she was equally at home 
in all three. Myszkowski chose Italian. The oc- 
casion, of course, was not a decisive one, but the 
conversation turned on Wladislas, the most 
anxious enquirer being an elderly lady-in-waiting 
who wanted to know if he was tall; the Princess, 
she would have them know, was tall, really tall, 
not made so artificially, with high heels, etc., 
to prove which she raised her mistress's skirt until 
they saw not merely blue stockings, but also saf- 
fron garters and white lace. 

The last country of "European Europe" is 
Sobieski's own country, but only the last because, 
like England, it led nowhere. If omitted from a 
tour it was omitted with regret and consciousness 
of loss, being the largest monarchy in Christen- 
dom, 600 miles by 800, with a frontier reaching 
to within 150 miles of Moscow and 100 of the 
Black Sea; always on the verge of war, moreover, 
and a paradise of aristocracy, three good reasons 
for claiming the Average Tourist's attention, es- 
pecially as among this aristocracy was always to 
be found a welcome and as high an average of 
attainments and qualities as anywhere north of 
the Alps. The statement, too, that it was not a 
thoroughfare must not be taken as absolute. Ne- 
gotiations between the Tsars and the Papacy were 
frequent and these of course implied journeys 
through Poland by the friars whom the Papacy 



Christian Europe 1 3 1 

was wont to use as emissaries for long distances, 
as being more accustomed to endure privation 
and fatigue than bishops. 

Besides, from southeast to northwest stretched 
the high road from the Black Sea through Kamie- 
nietz to Danzig, which one of these travellers as- 
sures us was the most thickly-populated high- 
road in Europe. 13 Danzig itself was one of the 
great centres of world-commerce; so great that 
its citizens were well justified in one detail of their 
daily life that Moryson records, that of taking off 
their hats as they passed the town hall. The com- 
merce was very varied, but its main export seems 
to have been grain and its main import, Scotch- 
men. Of these latter there were certainly thou- 
sands; 14 in fact, from some date in the reign of 
Stephen Bathory (1575-86) till 1697, perhaps 
later, a "brotherhood" of Scots existed, recog- 
nised officially; and boys of fifteen to seventeen 
came over in such quantities and so often with 
such disastrous results, that in 1625 an edict was 
issued in Scotland prohibiting skippers taking 
over any who had not been sent for or had not 
500 marks. But these can hardly be reckoned as 
tourists, travelling, as they did, Scot-fashion, on 
the "ubi panis, ibi patria" principle, with the 
object of sharing the retail-trade with Jews, so 
successfully that there has long lingered in East- 
ern Prussia the proverb, "Warte bis der Schotte 
kommt," alluding to the annual visits of these 



1 3 2 "Touring in 1600 

pedlars. Many, too, can be traced as becoming 
burgesses of Danzig, or of Posen. 

Of visitors of the type with which this chapter 
is more specially concerned, the reign of the 
Henry who afterwards became Henry III of 
France marks a starting-point, judging partly from 
the evidence available before and after that date, 
partly from the statement in the report of the first 
resident Venetian ambassador there, Girolamo 
Lippomano, who came in that reign, that Poland 
was at that time an unknown land to Venetians. 

So much for the Average Tourist at work. Let 
us now see how he spent his spare time. It goes 
without saying that the degree to which the for- 
eigner enjoyed himself was more or less depend- 
ent on the behaviour of natives. Let us see, 
first, then, what reception he might expect. 
Small boys, of course, are the same yesterday, 
to-day and forever, but they were, if possible, 
somewhat more outspoken then. An ambassador's 
wife went to the Hague once, never again, "by 
reason of the boys and wenches who much won- 
dered at her huge farthingales and fine gowns, 
and saluted her at every turn of the street with 
their usual caresses of 'Hoore! hoore!'" Conceal- 
ing herself from view was impossible, no cart 
would hold her farthingale. And although with 
all the detail that is poured forth concerning the 
Venetian constitution, the feature in it which, 






Christian Europe 1 3 3 

though informal, has outlasted all the others, that 
of the limited despotism of the small boys, is ig- 
nored, yet in practice it was felt; Sastrow, for one, 
did not forget being pursued with "Tu sei tedesco, 
percio Luterano. " 

As regards the adults, Frenchmen, or any one 
dressed in French fashions, had to beware of the 
Italian towns where the French had been mas- 
ters for a time, and although Strassburg had a gate 
on the west, any one coming from the French side 
had to enter by the east gate. Commercial quarrels 
were even more bitter than political. When, for 
instance, the English removed their "staple" 
from Hamburg to Stade, nearer the mouth of the 
Elbe, it was not safe for an Englishman to be seen 
at Hamburg after the citizens had reached their 
mid-day stage of drunkenness. As for theological 
enmity, a Roman Catholic was saying his prayers 
one evening in Frisia with the windows open; an 
old woman marked it and came across the street 
to spit at his inn; the next morning she came 
again, to spit at him, and he had to put up with 
it for fear of worse happening. 

With such exceptions as these there was not 
much to be feared from the upper classes; nor 
even, on the main routes, from the lower; in 
Dauphine, for instance, all classes were pleasant 
enough, whereas at Rochelle strangers were 
liable to be pulled off their horses if they did not 
remove their hats when passing the guard at the 



1 34 Touring in 1600 

gates. The two worst towns for brutality towards 
foreigners were, by general consent, London and 
Toulouse. In the former, according to Giordano 
Bruno, whose account only differs from every one 
else's in being more picturesque, the shop-people 
and artizans, on seeing a stranger, make faces, 
grin, laugh, hoot, call him dog, traitor, foreigner, 
the last name being the rudest they can think of, 
qualifying him for any other insult. Should he 
take the offensive, or put his hand to his weapon, 
an army of ruffians seems to spring out of the 
ground, flourishing a forest of sticks, poles, hal- 
berds, and partizans. In a more playful humour, 
one will pretend to run away behind a booth and 
come out charging on the stranger like an angry 
bull; if an arm gets broken, as happened to one 
Italian, the bystanders shout with laughter and 
the magistrate sees nothing reprehensible in the 
affair. 15 Oxford was a change for the better, for 
there it was only the students who behaved like 
brigands ; as they did at Carcassonne, too, where the 
law-students insisted on tribute from visitors, — 
they called it a " bienvenu," — or if it was not forth- 
coming, the contents of the visitor's trunks were 
shaken out. Yet among those of Oxford, Zinzer- 
ling makes an exception in the case of Queen's 
College, where as soon as a foreigner is recognised 
as such, he is brought an ox-horn full of beer. 

Such presents were customary on a very large 
scale on the continent; in France they generally 



VENETIAN MOUNTEBANKS 

Painted between 1573 and 1579; from a Stammbuch (British Mu- 
seum MS. Egerton 1191). Concerning these mountebanks the French 
traveller Villamont writes in 1388, ''And if it happens that they 
[i. e. the 'sights' of Venice] bore you, go and look at the 'charlatans' 
in St. Mark's Place, mounted on platforms, enlarging on the virtues 
of their wares, with musicians by their side.' 




tfw 



'&..\P9t<?r***+? 



Christian Europe 1 3 5 

consisted of wine and were presented to persons 
of high rank only, but in Germany every gentle- 
man received gifts of drink and food which usually 
cost more than their value in tips and dinners. 
The higher the rank of the visitor, the greater 
the quantity; the Infanta Clara Eugenia writes 
home that at the stopping-places in her passage 
through Switzerland the gifts require thirty or 
forty men to carry them, who lay them at her feet 
until she is surrounded by barrels and has the 
greatest difficulty in preserving her gravity. At 
Lucerne she received barley as well as wine, and 
two oxen, both too fat to move. Many other 
local customs had to be submitted to which have 
died out since; such as ceremonies of initiation 
into the freedom of Hansa League towns, which 
were accompanied by practical joking; the obli- 
gation on Protestants staying at Geneva to attend 
service at 7 a. m. whenever there was a sermon; 
and so on. 

Among these exceptional customs and regu- 
lations should be mentioned those concerning 
weapons in Italy. At Lucca no knife might be 
carried unless blunted at the point; in the Papal 
States, a sword was allowed, but no short, easily 
hidden, weapon; in Venetian territory fire-arms 
only were forbidden; elsewhere a license from the 
local authorities had ordinarily to be obtained for 
wearing a sword, and in Florence the license only 
referred to day-time. This is Moryson's account 



136 Touring in 1600 

of the regulations; before his time the regulations 
were laxer, and later they became stricter, which 
gave a great impetus to the poisoning trade; in 
fact, the bakers in Lombardy were mostly Ger- 
mans, and those of Rome, Jews, the Italians be- 
ing unwilling to trust their fellow countrymen. 

Such subjects naturally suggest executions, 
which formed one of the commonest and prin- 
cipal "sights" throughout Europe. Lithgow 
landed at the Piazzetta at Venice just when a 
friar was being burnt alive there for getting fifteen 
nuns with child in a year. It was in Venice, too, 
that Moryson saw two young senators' sons, who 
had had too uproarious a night, have their hands 
cut off at the places where they had done the mis- 
chief, their tongues cut out where they had sung 
blasphemous songs, and finally beheaded by a sort 
of guillotine in the Piazza. And when he was 
staying at Leipzig, where, as was the custom in 
Germany, adultery was punishable by death, a 
case had recently occurred of a girl giving birth 
to an illegitimate child in a church, during service. 
It was under consideration when he left whether 
an ancient precedent should not be revived to 
meet her case, that she should be tied up in a sack 
with a cat, a cock, a snake, and a dog, all alive, 
and so drowned. To quote one more as a sample 
of many, there is the detailed description of a 
man being broken on the wheel at Hamburg, by 



PUBLIC EXECUTIONS 

The " Supplicium Sceleri Froenum" of Jacques Callot (i^Q2-i6jj). 
The first state of the etching seems to be unobtainable for reproduc- 
tion, this being from a photograph (the only one hitherto reproduced?) 
of one of the better copies of the second state, almost equally rare in 
a good condition (Dresden Museum). 



Christian Europe 137 

Taylor the "water-poet." The place of execution 
was on a mound, so that the enormous crowd 
could see well; moated, to keep the people at a 
distance, and approached by a drawbridge which 
was raised during the execution; the criminal was 
drunk, according to custom. In Germany ex- 
ceptional criminals were on view for some days 
before execution, nailed by the ears to posts. 
Torture accompanying execution was common, 
and branding and mutilation things that no tra- 
veller could well avoid seeing. But none seemed 
to want to avoid them : Evelyn went to the Chate- 
let prison at Paris to look on while a prisoner 
underwent legal torture. The only occasions that 
seem to have struck them as too horrible was when 
the headsman bungled matters : a Dutchman at 
Paris saw one try sixteen times and then have to 
be assisted. And as in the towns, so by the way- 
side. Gallows and wheels bearing the bodies of 
men and sometimes of women, dying, dead, or de- 
caying, were continually to be seen : Taylor says he 
counted seven score between Hamburg and Prague, 
and Moryson mentions a criminal hanging in 
chains near Lindau, starving to death, with a 
mastiff at each heel, in order that he might be 
partially eaten before death. 

No less awful a sight, and no less frequent in 
certain places, such as Marseilles, was the galley- 
slave, naked except for a pair of breeches, shaven, 
dragging behind him when ashore the chain fixed 



138 Touring in 1600 

to his feet, treated worse than a beast, and yet 
not necessarily criminal: at Leghorn was a tent, 
at Naples a certain stone, where a man might 
stake his liberty against a few shillings on a throw 
of the dice. Among the few who obtained their 
release by being bought out were those who, on 
that condition, acted as deputies in the processions 
of flagellants which tourists often mention: Mon- 
taigne witnessed one at Rome with five hundred 
persons in it. He, like others, was astonished to 
note their unconcern; the scourging was genuine: 
their backs were raw and bloody, the thongs of 
the scourges adhering to each other with the 
blood; yet so far from showing signs of pain, they 
marched along, careless and talkative, in an 
e very-day mood. 

Other forms of slavery were ordinarily met 
with: at Naples an open slave-market was held; 
at Lisbon, too, where men and monkeys were sold 
side by side. And here and there one might come 
across settlements of those who could not claim 
all the benefits of the law. Zinzerling picked up 
a cagot servant near Toulouse, a young man, well- 
informed, who told him how his brother-outcasts 
had just petitioned for permission to marry whom 
they chose, offering to have their blood tested 
to prove it no different from other men's. Those 
who did not act as servants, lived by handicraft, 
carpentering mostly; they were forced to dwell 
in the suburbs, and nothing they owned was 



Christian Europe 139 

heritable except furniture, which was looked on 
as sharing their taint. 

But he does not mention the goose-foot badge 
which distinguished them from "clean" persons. 
The badge of the Jew, on the other hand, often 
seen, is often mentioned, varying according to the 
extent they had acquired influence and used it. 
In Poland, thanks to the Jewish mistress of one 
of their kings, they had almost equal rights with 
Christians. Elsewhere, except in those places, 
such as England, which they were nominally for- 
bidden to enter, a badge was compulsory; lightest 
in Mantua, merely a bit of yellow lace tacked on 
inside their cloaks, but generally a red hat for 
the men and a red garment for the women: red 
as betokening their guiltiness of Christ's blood. 
An alternative colour was yellow, as in Rome, where 
a short-sighted cardinal once mistook a red-hatted 
Jew for a brother cardinal and obtained a change 
of colour in order to safeguard himself against 
being so polite again. 

But the tourist's leisure, so far, has been too 
much occupied with blood and social damnation; 
let us look for a lighter mood : let us see him at the 
Zoo. Florence seems to have been the best stocked. 
Rabelais saw two Zoos there, and this was not 
an optical illusion of a credible kind, for he lo- 
calises them differently; one at the Palazzo 
Strozzi with porcupines and ostriches as the 



ho Touring in 1600 

"stars"; one near the Belfry, boasting lions and 
tigers. Moryson mentions one only, the Duke's, 
containing five lions, five wolves, three eagles, 
three tigers, one wild cat, bears, leopards, an In- 
dian mouse which could kill a cat, and wild boars. 
After another fifty-year interval comes Evelyn, 
who looks down upon all the animals housed to- 
gether in a deep court, a pleasanter confinement, 
he thinks, than the narrow cages of the Tower at 
London. But I have forgotten Audebert, who 
should have come between (1576) Rabelais and 
Moryson, and who found a Zoo near the " Annun- 
ziata," possessing fourteen lions, a tiger, an eagle, 
and a vulture therein. In 1 592 at Prague there were 
twelve camels in the Emperor's Zoo, very probably 
the sons and daughters of those whom Busbecq 
brought back from Constantinople in the hope of 
naturalising them in Europe as beasts of burden, — 
not the only attempt of the kind, for Sir Wm. 
Brereton saw some so used in Holland, and a 
German others near Aranjuez. The leopards, 
moreover, in this same Imperial Zoo, were taken 
to assist in hunting. 

Experiments and novelties such as these, of 
course, provided a larger part of the interest of a 
journey then than is the case now, when such news 
is communicated immediately through the news- 
papers. WefindTommasoContarini, ambassador 
to Flanders, greatly struck by the value of peat 
as fuel, and bringing back some to Venice to as- 



Christian Europe 141 

sist him in ascertaining if anything of the kind is 
obtainable near. Then there was "Der Einlasse," 
the complicated night-entrance to Augsburg, 
worked by mechanism which allowed a person 
to be admitted without seeing any one, — such a 
mystery that many allowed themselves to be 
locked out on purpose to see it work, and Queen 
Elizabeth sent a special agent to acquire the 
secret; in vain. But in Augsburg front doors were 
habitually opened by pulleys from some room, 
and shut automatically; it was at Augsburg, too, 
that a coach was to be seen "driven by engines" 
within it by the occupant so that it seemed to 
go of itself; it had been driven about the city. 16 
This occurs in the year 1655; three years later 
fountain pens 17 were on sale at Paris for ten francs 
each, twelve to those whom the inventor knew to 
be eager to have one; that is, £5 to £6 in our money. 
Even an Italian might learn: like the Florentine 
who discovered in England what garden-rollers 
were, in their early solid-stone-cylinder form. 
But Tasso had the chance to learn something im- 
portant and not only passed it by but places it 
first among the three customs in France which he 
strongly condemns. It is that in some districts 
the people nourished the children with cow's milk. 
How, he asks, can any good come of feeding in- 
fants with the produce of an animal that is a beast 
of burden and has to endure blows daily? An Eng- 
lishman in Italy noted the method of stripping 



142 'Touring in 1600 

hemp with wooden instruments instead of with the 
fingers, the laborious English way; and fans, forks, 
and umbrellas would be new to every one who 
crossed the Alps; but a learned physician warned 
Moryson against using the last-mentioned, "things 
like a little canopy," as concentrating the heat of 
the sun on the head. 

In Flanders, again, every one might learn what 
kind of a thing a door-mat was, and a Dutch bar- 
ber had only to cross the Channel to find that he 
was behind the times in using dregs of beer as a 
lather. And if it was possible for a twentieth-cen- 
tury Englishwoman to cross into sixteenth-cen- 
tury Germany she would find out what a con- 
venience it was for an invalid to have a towel 
attached to a wheel running along the head of the 
bed, to assist him or her in changing position. 
Where, too, except from travel, his own or some 
one else's, did Sir John Harington get his ideas 
concerning the introduction of real water-closets, 
with gold-fish visible swimming about in the cis- 
terns, just as they are to be seen at railway sta- 
tions to-day ? 

A greater discovery than all these put together 
lay in the differences in the position of women in 
the above countries. Take the United Provinces 
and Italy, as the two where the contrast was 
greatest. In the former, girls of good birth and 
looks might not only settle down in the common- 
room of an inn instead of hiring a private room for 



Christian Europe 143 

meals, but would sit round the fire and share the 
after-dinner drink of the men as a matter of 
course. All-night skating-parties were so common 
that the liberty was not misused; whereas in Italy 
the strictness was as extreme as the Dutch free- 
dom, and its result, too; only, in Italy, the result 
was the demoralisation of both sexes. Chioggia 
was an exception, where Villamont was surprised 
to see the women and girls sitting at their doors, 
needle-working; and where French influence had 
made itself felt some relaxation had taken place, 
especially at Genoa, where one foreigner even 
notes that the women walked with a longer stride 
than most Italian women. But the unmixed Ital- 
ian convention gave most girls no choice between 
becoming either prisoners or prostitutes, that is, 
of course, like everything else in this book, from 
the foreigner's point of view. Of the former class 
the tourist saw next to nothing; the men of the 
household did even the marketing themselves; 
while the latter formed one of the best-known 
features of Italian life. The numbers may seem 
at first sight incredible — 30,000 is the figure al- 
ways quoted for Naples; but there was some 
check on such statements inasmuch as every 
government licensed each one for a fixed sum 
and therefore could reckon the total. Moreover, 
Sir Henry Wotton writes in 1592 that a census 
just taken in Rome counted 40,000, and he had 
it on good authority; and in 1617, that the Es- 



144 "Touring in 1600 

pousal of the Sea at Venice had been spoilt as a 
sight because the courtesans, offended at an edict 
directed at them, had abstained from taking part 
in it. Those at the head of the profession lived 
"like princesses," not only so far as expenditure 
went, but also in their command of marks of 
respect in public, except that every now and then 
some sumptuary edict would create, and per- 
haps enforce, some distinction between those who 
populated and those who depopulated Italy. It 
is pleasanter to turn back to Holland again, to 
the homely arrangements of Thursday in Delft 
fair week, when the women who had had enough 
of waiting for husbands sat in the church and 
the men who had waited long enough for wives 
came to look at them. A few questions, a pot 
of beer, a few details to be settled; and then the 
wedding. 

There were plenty of these fairs, Lyons had 
four a year, so had Rouen; but the attraction they 
possessed for the sixteenth-century human being 
lay rather in the amount of wholesale and finan- 
cier's business done than in homely picturesque- 
ness; sentimentality is the last vice he can be 
charged with. Who, for instance, nowadays, would 
dare to say he saw nothing charming in a Breton 
festival? but Brittany was left to itself in those 
days, and a travelling doctor who chanced on one 
leaves it with the remark that the Breton girls 
singing their folk-songs reminded him of "the 



Christian Europe 145 

croaking of frogs when they are in love." Yet St. 
John's Eve was a festival that gave plenty of 
pleasure to lookers-on as well as those who took 
part in it; at Paris, in particular, where there was 
hardly a citizen named after the saint who did not 
light a fire at his door that night. And it is per- 
haps worth mentioning how they kept that feast 
at Naples, according to Audebert, in 1577; how 
the custom was to bathe in the sea previous to 
paying one's devotions at "S. Giovan' a' Mare," 
seeing that he adds that the custom was dying 
out, the younger people scorning it as a pagan 
survival. 

A larger proportion of the public pleasures of 
Europe were bound up with religious ceremony 
than is the case at present; and as regards pilgrim- 
age, the reference above to the subject in general 
needs to be supplemented by some details con- 
cerning the relics, since there is no room for doubt 
as to whether or not they held their ground as 
"sights," the more so inasmuch as a sceptical 
attitude did not become a conventional habit of 
mind until, to judge by tourists' books, about the 
third quarter of the seventeenth century. At the 
abbey of Marmoutier, near Tours, for example, 
was shown a vessel which had been sent from 
Heaven filled with oil for the healing of St. Mar- 
tin's leg, a breakage of which the devil had caused 
by taking away the stairs. They also showed a 
vast barrel wherein St. Martin kept his wine; but 



146 Touring in 1600 

not till 1675 does any one remark that that was 
probably the fiend who stole away the stairs. 
Disbelief finds expression in plenty, it is true, 
but it is always that of the Protestant who dis- 
believes, not because his reason tells him the tale 
must be false, but because Roman Catholicism 
affirms it to be true. When there was no sus- 
picion of a friar at the back of the story, there 
was nothing they would not swallow: even Eve- 
lyn accepts Mettius Curtius and his chasm as if 
all four evangelists had guaranteed both; or, to 
take a still better example, that of the monument 
near Leyden to the lady who had 365 children at 
one birth — (she had laughed at a poor woman's 
tale that the latter's two babies were twins, and 
the woman had expressed a hope that the lady 
might give birth to as many children at one con- 
finement as there were days in the year) — Mun- 
ster, the great Protestant geographer, repeats the 
story without throwing doubt, and consequently 
one tourist after another has no hesitation about 
it. 

So happy a frame of mind must have increased 
the interest of many a resting-place. Breaking 
one's journey at Angers, for instance, there was 
a porphyry vase to be seen, one of those used at 
the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee; others were 
preserved at Famagosta, Magdeburg, and the 
Charterhouse at Florence. At Angers, also, at 
St. Julian's, was a copy of the portrait of Our Lady 



Christian Europe H7 

which St. Luke had painted; at Arras, manna which 
had fallen in the days of St. Jerome, looking like 
white wool; at Milan, the brazen serpent which 
Moses set up in the wilderness; at Vienna, one 
of the stones wherewith St. Stephen had been 
stoned, another at Toulouse; and at the monas- 
tery of the Celestines at Louvain, one of the thirty 
silver pennies for which Christ had been sold, 
bearing the head of Tiberius on one side, a lily 
on the other. It is well known how Mary Magda- 
len came to Provence to live after the Crucifixion, 
but less known that at Maximilien near Marseilles 
the tip of her nose used to be on view: no more 
than that because she had been cremated, but the 
tip of her nose remained imperishable because 
there Christ had kissed her. Pontius Pilate also 
ended his life in Europe: in exile at Vienne, where 
the tower in which he had been imprisoned was 
pointed out to the visitor, likewise the lake wherein 
he had committed suicide, although it was on the 
shores of another lake, one in the territory of Lu- 
cerne, that he was to be seen walking once a year 
in his official robes. But this every one was con- 
tent to take on hearsay, since he who saw him 
then died within the year. 

The monastery of St. Nicholas at Catania, in 
Sicily, had an excellent collection : a nail from the 
Cross, one of St. Sebastian's arrows, and pieces of 
St. George's coat of mail, of St. Peter's beard, and 
of the beard of Zachary, father of John the Bap- 



148 Touring in 1600 

tist. This, and the places previously mentioned, 
serve to show what treasures would surely be met 
with on the road; great relic-centres like Venice 
and Rome would require pages to catalogue their 
wealth; even a secondary centre like Trier held 
as many bodies of saints as there are days in the 
year, besides the well by which Athanasius sat 
when he composed the "Quicunque Vult" and 
the knife wherewith St. Peter cut off Malchus' 
ear. 

As for their belief in relics, it is only fair to 
point out what may not occur to every reader, 
that they had the same reason, neither more nor 
less, for believing so, as we for believing that the 
earth moves round the sun: it is common know- 
ledge. * Common knowledge ' — is not all of it, 
whether scientific or theological, equally an act 
of faith ? and is it more reasonable for us to quote 
Baedeker to ourselves than for pilgrim Nicholas 
to put his trust in friar John? "Howbeit (if we 
will truly consider it), more worthy is it to believe, 
than to know as we now know" — that is not a 
quotation from a theologian but from Bacon's 
"Advancement of Learning." Of two things we 
may be sure, that the true history of a relic would 
probably be far stranger than its legend, and that 
whatever marvels the southerner saw or heard, 
he came across nothing more novel or more mi- 
raculous than the ebb and flow of the northern 
tides. 



Christian Europe 149 

In speaking of relics, the secular ones must be 
remembered, too: foremost among them the origi- 
nal Ephesus statue of Diana, which Hentz- 
ner saw at Fontainebleau and Evelyn at the 
Louvre. Most frequently mentioned is the buck's 
head at Amboise. It bore antlers of enormous size, 
and for that reason had enjoyed Francis I's 
special protection while alive. By Sir John 
Reresby's time (1654) it na< ^ been ascertained that 
the buck was of English birth, having reached 
France by swimming the Channel; while thirty- 
three years later it had been dead for three hun- 
dred years and at the date of its death was nine 
hundred years old. These details need no expla- 
nation; any caretaker can equal them under pres- 
sure. The writer once asked the sextoness of the 
church where Spinoza lies buried how he came to 
be laid there considering he was not exactly or- 
thodox: the answer was, without hesitation, that 
he became a Protestant before he died! 

These secular relics cannot possibly be left 
without a digression concerning unicorn's horns, 
which were more prized than any other kind of 
exhibit. St. Mark's Treasury at Venice seems to 
have been the only museum that possessed more 
than one; it contained three. Dresden owned one, 
which hung by a golden chain; that at Fontaine- 
bleau, three yards high, was valued at one hundred 
thousand crowns. It was, however, a wise uni- 
corn that knew its own horn: the Danish sailors 



1 50 Touring in 1600 

kept their secrets quiet and prices high, the more 
easily since, owing to disasters, there were tem- 
porary cessations in the Greenland whale-fishery, 
of which unicorns' horns were a by-product, thus 
rendering the supply small and fluctuating. It was 
an open secret by this time that sea-unicorns ex- 
isted, but the heraldic animal had the overwhelm- 
ing advantage of support from Pliny, Aristotle, 
and the Bible and therefore fought for the 
"crowns" so to speak, with every success. It was 
not till this time, in 1603, that the unicorn was 
introduced into the arms of the King of England; 
and its horn was in the greater request because 
of its supposed quality of an antidote to poison. 
To the lore of this part of the subject Zinzerling 
makes an addition. At Tours lived a lawyer who 
had travelled in Spain and India, and had brought 
back three great rarities : " Rolandi gladium, Li- 
brum in pergameno Geographise et Hydrographise, 
membrum masculum Monocerotis majoris contra 
toxica efficacise quam cornu." 

He did not see these personally, but mentions 
them because it would be a pity for any one to 
miss them for lack of a word or two from him. 
For himself, he could not find the lawyer, a kind 
of trouble from which these tourists ordinarily 
suffered, for it was part of their experience to 
make acquaintance with private collections. Not 
that there were any public ones to the extent we 
are accustomed to, except the churches, which, as 



Christian Europe 151 

picture galleries, had this advantage, that the pic- 
tures were seen in the setting for which they were 
designed. Practically all the official "treasuries" 
were only public to the extent that a remark- 
able country house like Compton Winyates is so 
now; yet on the other hand, and for that very 
reason, it was somewhat more customary for 
private collections to be accessible to strangers 
than is the case, probably, at present. What at- 
tracted the greatest number of visitors, however, 
was water-mechanisms. 

Up till the beginning of the seventeenth cen- 
tury these were found at their best only in Italy; 
and of the Italian, those at Pratolino ranked first, 
belonging to the Duke of Florence, who was re- 
puted to spend more on his water than on his 
wine. The invariable custom of secret devices 
for soaking the visitor as he sat down or walked 
about was there carried further, and with greater 
variety, than elsewhere. Besides, there was Fame 
blowing a trumpet; a peasant offering a drink to 
a tiger who swallows it and then looks all round; 
Syrinx beckons to Pan to pipe, whereupon Pan 
gets up from his seat, puts it aside, pipes, pulls 
his seat towards him and sits down again with a 
melancholy look because Syrinx has not rewarded 
him with a kiss. And so on, with a multitude of 
devices for making music and attracting atten- 
tion, only equalled by those at the Villa d' Este 
at Tivoli. 



152 Touring in 1600 

It is noteworthy how long it took to introduce 
them into France, where everything Italian was 
fashionable. Marguerite de Valois speaks of those 
she saw in Flanders in 1577 in a way that implies 
no previous acquaintance with anything of the 
kind, but when peace was restored, we find St. 
Germain-en-Laye stocked with a poet who plays 
on a lyre, and with various animals which gather 
round him, and trees which bend down, as he 
plays ; and the king passes by with his suite. On the 
other side of the Rhine ingenuity seems to have 
been devoted rather to clock-work. The clock at 
Strassburg, one of the chief marvels of Europe, 
was outdone by one in a private house at Augs- 
burg: for besides displaying all the clever puerili- 
ties which the seventeenth century rejoiced in, it 
reproduced the movements and stations of the 
planets and the advent and effect of eclipses, all 
in their due time. Somewhat later, at Liibeck, 
the striking of the hour by the town clock was 
accompanied by the Virgin kissing her Baby, 
and St. Peter dropping his key and picking it up 
again, while at Hamburg could be seen a marvel- 
lous Annunciation, with a most gorgeous Gabriel 
and live attendant cherubim who flapped gilded 
wings, and a Blessed Virgin dressed in the French 
fashion who was discovered reading a book and 
ended by dropping a curtsey. 

Of amusements which required people to take 
part in them, card games were rarely seen in 



Christian Europe 153 

Germany, and in Italy were banned as much by 
public opinion as by law, whereas in England 
they were an occupation rather than an amuse- 
ment. So also with hawking and hunting. In six 
years abroad Moryson saw hawking but twice, 
once in Bohemia and once in Poland, and implies 
that in England it was common; while of hunting 
he definitely says, "England lacks not Actseons, 
eaten up by their own dogs." The same contrast 
he observes with regard to itinerant musicians 
and plays, of which latter he is sure that more are 
performed in London than in all the other parts 
of the world that he had visited put together. A 
variety of angling, on the other hand, he notes 
as peculiar to Italy: that with bait and hooks 
fastened to corks and held out of window for 
birds; while golf was only played in Scotland, 
Holland, and Naples; and the most frequently 
played game in Europe, pallone, was as unknown 
in Britain then as now. The piazza S. Stefano at 
Venice was reserved for pallone every Sunday even- 
ing, and in the disused papal palace at Avignon 
one room was given up to pallone and another to 
tennis, which came next in popularity, the chief 
centre being Paris. In 1577 it was credited with 
1800 courts, but the Dutch ambassador resident 
there eighty years later had them counted and 
only discovered 118. 

And so the list might go on and on and on — in 
all its seeming irrelevancy! And yet, when it is 



i54 Touring in 1600 

borne in mind that every detail is one that some 
tourist or other noticed, to the point of thinking it 
worth recording, a certain, at least symbolic, rele- 
vancy comes into view, even though it be nothing 
more vital than that of a 16th-century variety of 
subjective imbecility under the stimulus of a jog- 
trot. On the other hand, all this comes under the 
heading of 

. . . things 

Which cannot in their huge and proper life 

Be here presented. 

So the scenery must be shifted. 



PART II 

THE UNVISITED NORTH 

"... a few days earlier I had read certain News-Sheets 
printed here in Venice by these good fathers [the Jesuits], relating 
their progress in Muscovy, the conversion of a King in Africa, 
and so on. I said to myself, all right about Muscovy, it 's a cold 
Country, far away, few go there — and few return. . . ." 

Sir Henry Wotton, 1 1606. 

Andrew Boorde has something to say about 
Iceland in his guide to Europe. He puts into the 
mouth of a native the words, — 

' I am an Icelander, as brute as a beast, 
When I eat candle ends, I am at a feast. 

And that is all they knew about Iceland. As a 
country with a political history and a literature 



Christian Europe 155 

it was no more present in their minds than as a 
holiday resort. Nor were any of the countries 
that bordered the Baltic, except on the South. 
But Danzig alone was enough to keep the Bal- 
tic a busy sea, and consequently Denmark was 
not as much ignored as would otherwise have 
happened; for both sides of the entrance to the 
Baltic belonged to the King of Denmark, whose 
extortions in the way of tolls kept his name be- 
fore the public. 

Norway was thus practically isolated from Eu- 
rope. Sweden, however, during the Thirty Years' 
War, attracted some attention, partly on account 
of its share in the war, partly on account of the 
development of its silver mines. There is an in- 
teresting account of a visit to those at "Sylf- 
bergen," twenty leagues from Stockholm, in 1667, 
which may serve as an indication of experiences 
that might have been met with at an earlier date. 
The visitor, a Frenchman, 2 descended, half -naked, 
in half a cask, which was attached to a cable by 
three iron chains, accompanied by two workers 
whose grimness, flavour, and unpleasant person- 
alities, gave him an attack of nerves. Among 
the miners he found French, Germans, English, 
Italians and Russians, all, as he says, digging their 
own graves, for the conditions of mining in those 
days was terrible. A traveller through Hungary 
in 161 5 3 notes that the miners there could not 
work more than four hours at a stretch, and that 



^ Touring in 1600 



few reached middle age, what with the number 
of casualties and the conditions of the mines 
One result of this was that they usually married 
at fifteen. Yet weekly wages, after making allow- 
ance for the cheapness of living in Hungary, were 
equivalent to no more than twelve to fourteen 
shillings at present values. It was a most natural 
question at the time to ask whether, working as 
they did in the bowels of the earth, they ever 
came across demons. To which question a miner 
answered that sometimes they did, and on those 
occasions they appeared in the shape of little 
black boys, chattering, but doing no harm be- 
yond blowing the lamps out. 

Returning northwards and continuing the jour- 
ney to the other side of the Baltic, the dominions 
of the Grand Duke of Muscovy would not be 
reached immediately. Riga, the port most usu- 
ally aimed at, belonged to Poland; the alterna- 
tive harbour of Revel to Sweden. The choice of 
Riga is another instance of the contemporary 
preference for travelling by water rather than by 
land. _ However far out of the straight line between 
Danzig and Moscow, it was both the nearest coast 
town to the latter and also at the mouth of the 
river, the Dwina, which is navigable for the longest 
distance west of Moscow. One other route re- 
mains, discovered by the English, left wholly to 
them and to the Dutch, and onlv used by them 
because of commercial quarrels with the rulers of 



DANGERS OF THE NORTHERN SEAS 
According to Munster's "Cosmographie" 1575 («■ T 7 2 4)- 



Christian Europe 157 

the Baltic. This was the sea-voyage of about 
two months from London to Archangel, then up 
the Dwina and Suchona to Vologda, and thence 
by land to Moscow. 

Moscow then possessed about forty thousand 
houses. It may be doubted if any town in Europe 
surpassed that number. Yet it was not size that 
caused going to Muscovy to be practically iden- 
tical with going to Moscow, but the fact that the 
latter was the residence of a ruler whose despot- 
ism was so unlimited that every other settlement 
became insignificant compared with that where 
he dwelt. This is typified by the prominence 
given by all foreigners to the banquet they gener- 
ally attended as the guests of the Tsar, a display 
of barbaric magnificence that must evidently 
have been one of the most striking sights of Eu- 
rope. Unfortunately the magnificence was apt 
to stop short at the door of the banquet-hall. 
One Italian 4 in particular could not forget leav- 
ing after three hours, picking his way through the 
outer rooms, pitch dark and strewn with courtiers 
in the weeping-stage of drunkenness, down the 
stairs. About twenty yards away from the foot 
of the stairs a crowd of servants were waiting 
with horses to take their masters home. Towards 
these they had to wade, knee-deep in mud, still 
in pitch-darkness, and so continue a good part 
of the way home, since no one was allowed to 
ride till he had passed out of the palace precincts. 



is8 Touring in 1600 

Nowhere was this despotism more felt than in 
relation to travel: every foreigner was half a 
prisoner from the day he entered the kingdom 
to the day he left, even though he were an am- 
bassador. The very Jesuits sent by the Pope, in 
1 58 1, at the Tsar's own request, to negotiate a 
peace between himself and the King of Poland 
were under surveillance to such an extent that 
they were not allowed to water their own horses. 
Neither was any subject allowed to leave the land: 
the penalty for unlicensed travel being death. 
It is clear that leave must have been more freely 
granted than one might imagine from the general 
statements of visitors, since Russian pilgrims and 
merchants are by no means uncommon, and in- 
deed, at this period, Peter Mogila, Metropolitan 
of Kiev, and Boris Godunov, ruler at Moscow, 
endeavoured to encourage travel by Russians as a 
means of education. 

Godunov's efforts, in fact, beginning as they did 
with his accession in 1586, synchronised with the 
growth of the same idea in England. But his 
efforts failed through being too far ahead of public 
opinion; those whom he sent stayed away per- 
manently, those who stayed at home remained un- 
converted. 5 Two instances of public opinion as 
regards foreigners may be quoted, both occurring 
on the direct road to Moscow at the very end of 
this period, during the whole of which the number 
of visitors goes on increasing. The first is the ex- 



Christian Europe 159 

perience of some Dutchmen who came by invita- 
tion of the Tsar and consequently had a house 
commandeered for them. The wife of the owner, 
seeing no help was to be had from the local author- 
ities, rushed to St. Nicholas and would, she be- 
lieved, have obtained a miraculous expulsion of 
the visitors had not her husband tired of the length 
of her prayer and stopped it by force. The second 
is that of a Danish gentleman who, with his com- 
panions, was prevented from entering a village 
by bees which the peasants had irritated for that 
purpose. 

So, too, with the Muscovites and travel on 
their own account. Whereas other Europeans 
only thought of dying when they travelled, the 
Muscovite only thought of travelling when he 
died. Then his friends shod him with a new pair 
of shoes for the long journey that he had to go, 
and put a letter in his hand to St. Nicholas, by 
way of passport, testifying that the bearer died 
a Russian of the Russians in the one true faith. 

The distinctive characteristics of the people 
as seen by strangers were drunkenness, endurance 
of heat, cold, and torture, and slavish obedience 
to the Tsar. Drunkenness in particular. As the 
English verse-writer, Turberville, who went there, 
puts it, — 

Drink is their whole desire, the pot is all their pride, 
The soberest head doth once a day stand needful of a 
guide. 



160 Touring in 1600 

The habit went the farther since it was encouraged 
by the government, for the recent taking-over 
of the drink-traffic by the State was but a rever- 
sion to the state of affairs in 1600, though then it 
was an offence against the State to urge a man to 
leave one of the State-owned taverns, even though 
he was pledging the clothes off his back: a com- 
mon custom. At every season of public rejoicing 
in winter two or three hundred died in the streets 
of Moscow as they lay there naked and dead- 
drunk, and the stranger might see the bodies 
brought home by tens and twelves, half-eaten by 
dogs. One traveller tells a tale of a Muscovite 
whom he saw come out of a tavern in shirt and 
breeches only, meet a friend, return, and come out 
again with no shirt. The traveller, who knew 
Russian, expressed sympathy with him as if he 
had been robbed, but was answered, "No, it's the 
man at the bar and his wine that have brought 
me to this, but as my shirt 's there my breeches 
may as well keep it company." And accordingly, 
a few minutes afterwards, he came out once more 
with nothing to cover him but a handful of flowers 
picked at the tavern-door! 

There had been a Tsar who tried to repress 
drunkenness, but he became a dead failure in 
every sense of the phrase shortly before the above 
incident happened, and even during his lifetime 
achieved nothing more than preventing people 
going about the streets naked. Neither was it 



Christian Europe 161 

just the average man who could not endure life 
sober, but the priest frequently needed a lay- 
helper on either side of him in order to get through 
the marriage service, a result of the festivities 
preceding the wedding. And the women were no 
better than the men. When a Russian lady enter- 
tained her friends, it was etiquette to send round 
afterwards to know if they all got home safely. 
Yet one traveller unconsciously gives the Musco- 
vite's own point of view: there was a quarter of 
Moscow known as the "drunken" quarter: that 
was where the foreign soldiers lodged. 

The excessive misuse of tobacco was also bound 
to be noticed, considering that smoking became 
general more quickly there than anywhere else 
outside England and Turkey. But the Tsar who 
failed tj check drunkenness succeeded against 
smoking, which he prohibited, under penalty of 
slitting the nostrils, in 1634, on the ground of it 
being a frequent cause of fires among the houses, 
all wooden ones, and of the unholy state of the 
Muscovite's breath when he addressed the saints. 

Along with other accusations which the travel- 
lers have to lodge, such as that of a grossness of 
indecency without parallel in their experience, 
is hardly to be found one note of pleasure, except 
with regard to the charm of the Russian spring. 
It may be doubted if foreigners' opinions under- 
went much change until such writers as Turgenev 
compelled attention to the point of creating sym- 



162 'Touring in 1600 

pathy. But yet, if their tales be few and their 
enjoyment scanty, their records possess all the 
greater comparative value from the very fact 
of their fewness. That the pre-Christian Slav re- 
ligion still remained in memory, if not in use, at 
Pskov as late as 1590 would probably never even 
have been guessed but for the remark of one Jo- 
hann David Wunderer, who was there at that 
date, that he saw two stone statues there, one 
holding a cross, the other standing on a snake with 
a sword in one hand and fire in the other, idols, he 
was told, who were still known as "Ussladt" and 
"Corsa." 6 

PART III 

THE MISUNDERSTOOD WEST 

Et si pur effecti quasi miraculosi vi trovasse, come ja vi sono, 
V. S. non Pimputi al scriptore, ma a la variatione et deita de la 
natura. 

Antonio da Beatis, 15 18. 

It will have been noticed that the tourist was 
nothing if not unsympathetic. Yet nowhere 
does this stand out so sharply as in regard to 
the two countries farthest west. So far as the 
Spanish peninsula was concerned, a reason may 
be sought in the route usually chosen, a route 
which treated the peninsula as part of "Euro- 
pean Europe" and implied seeing a little of it, 
seeing that little in a one-sided way, and mis- 
taking it for an epitome of the whole. 



Christian Europe 163 

Starting from the southwest corner of France, 
the most direct way was taken for the Escorial 
and Madrid, whence the return journey led past 
Barcelona to Montserrat and so over the Pyrenees 
again to the southeast corner of France. The 
objective, of course, was the capital and the court. 
And it was taken for granted, here as elsewhere, 
that the other chief objects of interest were the 
towns, which claimed an even greater proportion 
of attention than in other countries, inasmuch as 
the hardships of travel in Spain were more try- 
ing to a foreigner than those experienced else- 
where, and his mental energies were often, in con- 
sequence, the less free for observation in Spain as 
long as he kept on the move. Now it unfortunately 
happened that the seamy side of Spanish life 
thrust itself to the front in undue proportion in 
the towns. Moreover, the French districts which 
lay nearest to Spain were those whose character- 
istics contrasted most favourably as against those 
of the Spanish districts that lay nearest to France. 
The liveliness and gaiety of the Bayonnais, play- 
ing bowls all day on the carefully levelled, sanded 
court between his house and the street, was 
thrown into relief by the sternness of the Pyrenees 
and the poverty and gloom of the Vizcaino. 

The injustice done by these first impressions 
was deepened by almost all that caught the 
attention on a journey like that just outlined, 
whatever the momentary point of view, whether 



164 'Touring in 1600 

historical, geographical, social, superficial, or polit- 
ical, — especially political. 

The Spanish king was looked on as the most 
powerful Christian monarch of the time, in pres- 
tige, in financial resources, and as the head of an 
empire whose limits were the more impressive for 
being mathematicians' lines imagined in the midst 
of the Unexplored. It was natural, then, to con- 
sider his capital the centre of each, as well as of 
all, of his dominions, and as the Holy of Holies 
of European kingship; and this, too, at a date 
when monarchical ideals were 60 strong that a 
highly respectable middle-class man like William 
Camden could allude to Simon de Montfort, who 
figures in modern school-books as the ever-glorious 
founder of "representative" government, as — 
"our Catiline." l In addition, the annexation 
of Portugal in 1580, and its revolt in 1640, accen- 
tuate such ideas more in this period than in any 
other as the only one during which the whole 
peninsula was under one king. 

Neither was this illusion of solidarity merely 
a traveller's mirage which those on the spot would 
rectify. Philip IPs people loved to have it so; 
witness one of SanchoPanza's favourite proverbs: 
"Un rey, Una fe, Una ley " ; and how was the tourist 
to know that the Spaniard did not appreciate 
his differentiation between ideals and facts ? The 
voice of Sancho Panza is, of course, the voice of 
Castile, but then Castile has always the monop- 



AT MONTSERRAT 

Alontserrat and its hermitages, with the Madonna and Child in 
the foreground and two pilgrims. From British Museum llarle- 
ian MS. 3822, folio 596. The two pilgrims are obviously the writer 
of the manuscript, Diego Cuelbis, of Leipzig, and his companion, 
Joel Koris. They visited Montserrat in 1599. 



M ! tJ — ' T- 7 1 



'j.Snof." 






kli 



<v» 



gft 






• 



•^"^ 



A 



Utt^" 



r 



! i, . U:.Tr^T7 



W Maria <j]ta jtwp ca5toa<is..4iiejnT))wtul4T'wl4M4!<s Wmiuottj^u;] 
it vi camp dtume charitaUs -Aue abyjsalis fans annus gratia, ei mfencortUa cceU 
res fnutifer omms dwme {uauittfa ddeuotionu. Intercede jm nmsalmosa da 

qomt/rix nrnoMariaaddommwn deumnestnunvtmenuserealurnofbri 

l' O | Y*qrnejlmAju*Urv 



Christian Europe 165 

oly of forming foreign, and leading Spanish, 
opinion on things Spanish. 

The choice of route, then, predetermined by 
the usual considerations, applicable only to other 
countries, failed to do justice to Spain. Yet it 
was accompanied by these special assumptions, as 
regards political supremacy, at the back of the 
tourist's mind, no evidence in favour of which 
was forthcoming; at least, no evidence of a kind 
which he came prepared to recognise as such. On 
the contrary, he could not avoid being struck by 
the insignificance of Spanish buildings, especially, 
curiously enough, at Madrid itself, where the 
houses were mostly of one story; a result of it 
being necessary to obtain a license from the King 
for anything higher, the conditions imposed by 
which license, such as that of housing ambassa- 
dors in the second story, would prove too burden- 
some. This particular impression was deepened 
in the latter half of the period by the linen window- 
panes, which made the interiors seem gloomy at 
a date when the use of glass in windows was 
spreading in the countries which the visitor had 
come from and had passed through. And so with 
many other matters, until one Dutchman who 
had travelled via Italy, after being taken to see 
a water-mill as something quite out of the com- 
mon, makes the general deduction: "What is 
very common elsewhere, here often passes for 
miraculous." 



1 66 Touring in 1600 

Furthermore, as has been said, there were the 
historical illusions, too, which would be shaken. 
What Montaigne experienced at Venice took 
place on a larger scale in the minds of all who 
visited Spain. The deeper the previous study, 
the deeper the disappointment; but the latter 
was felt nevertheless by him in whom it was un- 
conscious; and in both cases the recovery was 
slower than at Venice where all that was visible 
was so near. In fact, it is clear enough that with 
most a recovery never happened. 

The histories they depended on were a variety 
of heroic fiction whose theory of causation con- 
sisted of immediate causes and God. National 
limitations only appeared, therefore, in so far as 
they had contributed to national achievements. 
But to the tourist these limitations, and even the 
qualities which were simply strange to him, stood 
out as defects, and the necessary minutiae of daily 
life as the unworthy preoccupations of degenerate 
descendants; while the people, accordingly, whose 
ancestors were represented as having done nothing 
but conquer for centuries, showed up as ordinary 
human beings, muddling along in the way cus- 
tomary among one's own countrymen. Yet suc- 
cesses of Spanish diplomacy were so recent, and 
the supremacy of Spanish infantry so terribly 
obvious, that strangers could not account for all 
this disillusion by assuming degeneration to be 
the sole reason; while it was likewise too sudden 



Christian Europe 167 

for them to see in it nothing but an example of 
the falsification of proportions inherent in all 
knowledge drawn from books or other second-hand 
sources. Their attitude to Spain when they re- 
vised their journals was thus mystification rather 
than contempt or disgust, though both the latter 
are usually present. 

This same unpreparedness to take a totally 
fresh point of view is even more marked in rela- 
tion to religion. However greatly at odds the 
matter-of-fact foreigner and the matter-of-faith 
Castilian might be over details, both were equally 
unwilling to accept the illusions of to-morrow on 
that subject in place of the illusions of yesterday. 
The tendency to accept the face values of things 
theological was then as strong as to-day it is weak; 
but, with the possible exception of seventeenth- 
century Ireland, it was nowhere so strong as in 
Spain. The latter's place in Europe was bound up 
with leadership of the cause of Roman Catholi- 
cism; foreigners took this for granted, and the 
Spaniards unconsciously set a value on their 
creed apart from its relation to theological logic 
or religious experience — it had so long been the 
only rallying cry which could bring about a sink- 
ing of differences and achieve the temporary unity 
which was essential to success in war. But to 
the contemporary stranger, the varnish of the 
water of baptism was opaque, and the Celt, the 
Moor, the Pre-historic, the Outrageous-Pagan, 



168 "Touring in 1600 

and the all-pervading Jew, seemed all one thing, 
ultra-Holy-Roman. Another source of mystifi- 
cation — except to the Protestant, who knew 
exactly what it all meant and so went further 
astray than the rest, in the same direction. 

Socially, the unintelligible contradictoriness 
was as great. Witness one whom a Burgos gentle- 
man invited to dinner. The dining-room was that 
in which the hostess lay ill in bed with a fever; 
and he remembered afterwards that he had be- 
haved with grossly bad manners inasmuch as he 
had taken off" his hat at meal-time. 

To go on to the means whereby geography also 
contributed to strain the sixteenth-century tour- 
ist's easily ruptured sympathy, there was the 
climate. The majority started in fear of the heat 
and suffered only from cold, expecting to find an 
Andalusian spring perpetually reigning at, say 
Burgos, instead of its "ten months of winter and 
two of hell" (or, to retain the pun, "diez mezes 
de invierno y dos de infierno"); whereas the visit 
to the South which was so rarely paid would 
have restored beliefs which had foundation enough. 
Besides, through this fear of the heat they tra- 
versed what they did traverse at the seasons 
when what fascination it possessed was least in 
evidence. 

Among other conditions, the economic seem 
to have scandalised observers most. Perhaps the 
student will have noticed that whatever year dur- 



Christian Europe 169 

ing the last three hundred he may chance to be 
reading about in the history of Spain, the country 
will always at that moment have reached the 
last stage of economic exhaustion. Another quar- 
ter of a century or so, and, curiously enough, a 
lower stage will have been reached; yet another 
twenty-live years and one still lower; and so on 
until one would think the most hypothetical zero 
of bankruptcy must belong to a happier past and 
the population can consist of no more than a few 
emaciated grandees licking the rocks for suste- 
nance. The natural attempt will be to go farther 
and farther back to trace the steps of the decline; 
and in time one will come upon these whose ac- 
counts are under consideration ; but it will be with- 
out satisfaction. There is nothing for it but to go 
right back to the golden age. But in Guicciardini 
(15 13) there is just the same tale, scarcity of in- 
habitants; poverty; mean aspects of daily life; 
stagnation in commerce owing entirely to Spanish 
aversion from work; industries under foreign con- 
trol. It suggests that possibly the same pheno- 
mena have been in existence early and late, and 
that what earlier writers describe as an unde- 
veloped country is the same as the "exhausted" 
one of later days; the difference, if this is the 
case, lying not in the conditions seen but in the 
extent of the stranger's expectations, moderate 
when the power of Spain had just become of in- 
ternational account; too high, later, when it was 



1 70 Touring in 1600 

assumed that political power of long standing 
could not have grown up except in association 
with economic strength of equal greatness. To 
travellers of this period any unsoundness or "ex- 
haustion" seemed the more incomprehensible in 
that Spain was by far the chief importer of bullion, 
the universal value of which they were accustomed 
to overrate. 

Guicciardini, however, says nothing about the 
misbehaviour of Spanish women by which the 
next three or four generations of travellers are in- 
variably shocked, with one exception, that of 
Lady Fanshawe, who saw much to admire in 
them and nothing to condemn, and had she seen 
what the men saw there is no doubt whatever her 
scorn would have been very pronounced. Ac- 
cording to the men, neither the Italian fashion of 
the men restraining the women, nor the trans- 
alpine fashion of the women restraining themselves, 
was used in Spain. But it must be remembered 
that the male tourist tends to see the women- 
folk of the country he visits nearer their worst 
than their best. 

Too warm a welcome was not a fault into which 
the males fell. In Madrid a Protestant might 
feel safe, and in centres of international trade, 
such as Medina del Campo, free from insult; at 
Burgos there was even courtesy, and at Barce- 
lona civility, although it went hand in hand with 
robbery. But for the most part, it was needful to be 



Christian Europe 171 

both callous and plucky. In particular, the travel- 
ler must take care to get his hair cut short at 
Vittoria at the latest. French and many Germans 
as well as English wore their hair long, and nothing 
laid them open to insult, and even injury, so 
much as that; if they were clean-shaven as well, 
it was taken as certain that they carried effemi- 
nacy to extremes; neither were they the last to 
hear of it. "Rogue" and "thief" were ordinary 
terms, even after a hair-cut, and when the queen 
was a German, one of her countrymen, a man 
who could be trusted not to give offence, had to 
buy a new hat at Toledo because the one he was 
wearing bore too many traces of cow-dung; at 
Seville he was stoned. 

Yet considering the average elsewhere, the 
individual Spaniard stood to gain by comparison; 
one of the most prejudiced and illiterate of the 
tourists admits being treated with great courtesy, 
and there is a general agreement that the stand- 
ard of honesty was remarkably high. It is amus- 
ing, too, to notice what disconcerting answers 
were sometimes received by the gentlemen from 
abroad who thought that the peasantry of a Ro- 
man Catholic and poverty-stricken country only 
needed to be questioned in order that the pitiable 
state of their mind should become apparent, even 
to themselves. 

To one question, why extreme severity should 
be reserved for heretics, the reply was that heresy 



172 Touring in 1600 

was the only crime which had not the excuse of 
giving pleasure; while another who was asked why 
a saint's day should be honoured so highly and 
Sunday practically ignored, pointed out that the 
saint's day came but once a year and Sunday 
every week. So, too, it came as a surprise to the 
Protestant to find Spanish nuns neither neurotic, 
depressed, nor prim, but bright and attractive, 
and their education "infinitely beyond all our 
English schools." 2 

Nevertheless, what with the above experiences, 
together with others which will be more in place 
farther on, it is not surprising if Spain was con- 
sidered a country of especial danger and difficul- 
ties, where there was nothing to be learnt that 
had not better remain unlearnt, nor anything 
worth seeing. 

The best guide, in answering this last objection, 
urges that the court at Madrid and the church of 
San Lorenzo at the Escorial are alone worth the 
journey, and names fifty-eight towns to complete 
the answer. It would be superfluous to enter into 
details; it is more difficult for us to doubt it than 
for them to believe it. But Seville must not be 
passed over altogether, the Seville of Cervantes' 
"Novelas Ejemplares," the Seville which was 
what Madrid pretended to be, the Spanish capi- 
tal of Spanish Spain. Half the buildings that the 
modern visitor goes to see there were new in 1600, 
but the great sight, as great a sight as any in Eu- 



Christian Europe 173 

rope both in itself and for its associations, was the 
arrival of the silver fleet from the "Indies." 

Of the two chief places of pilgrimage, Mont- 
serrat, being on a main road from France and 
not far from Barcelona, is very frequently men- 
tioned, but an account of a journey to Com- 
postella is far rarer. Concerning the former, one 
account contains a particular of which there is per- 
haps no other record. The occupant of the highest 
of the almost inaccessible hermitages around the 
monastery, that of St. Jerome, in 1599, could bring 
the wild birds flocking round him when he called 
them, in such numbers that the writer, who had 
been throughout the peninsula, mentions the sight 
as the most wonderful in all Spain. Two ravens 
lived with the hermit in his cell. 3 As for Compo- 
stella, Andrew Boorde tells how he met nine men 
leaving Orleans on the way thither, and how he 
tried to dissuade them, saying he would rather 
go from England to Rome five times than once 
to Compostella, and that the government might 
well set in the stocks persons who proposed going 
thither without special leave, as being a waste of 
valuable lives. They persisted, and he accompa- 
nied them. Not one of the ten survived the journey 
except himself; and he was a doctor. Only one ac- 
count preserves much detail of a stay at Com- 
postella, that of a German soldier, 4 in 1581, who 
confessed to an Italian priest, nicknamed Lingua- 
rius for knowing Italian, Spanish, French, German, 



174 Touring in 1600 

Latin and other languages; and saw all that a 
good pilgrim should see, including the two great 
bells whose sound was so terrific as to frighten 
lady pilgrims into miscarriages. At Santo Do- 
mingo de la Calzada on the road, according to a 
Pole, 5 there remained a curious survival of divina- 
tion by birds. In the church porch white capons 
were reared in a copper-wire cage, to which the 
pilgrim used to offer bread on the end of his staff; 
if the bird refused the bread, it was held an omen 
that the pilgrim would die on the journey. 

Among the other things that Spain had in com- 
mon with "European Europe" may be mentioned 
the royal Zoos : one at Madrid, where a crocodile 
was to be seen, also the first rhinoceros that had 
been brought to Europe; the other at Valladolid, 
containing four lions, an eagle, four seals, and ca- 
nary-birds. In water-works Aranjuez could hold 
its own against Italy, with its brazen statue of 
Priapus, casting forth water from every extremity, 
a cave with two dragons and many birds, the 
birds being made to sing by the movements of 
the water; with satyrs and savages, and artificial 
cypresses and white roses which soaked the visitor 
who touched them. Neither were the horribles 
kept out of sight: at Seville some one speaks of 
seeing a thief shot to death with arrows, and two 
other criminals beheaded with swords, the bodies 
being laid up against a church-wall to attract alms 
to pay for their burial. 



Christian Europe 175 

The coupling of Ireland with Spain does not 
result from the mere chance of westernmost po- 
sition, nor even from the political needs that they 
shared, or from the supposed kinship of the peoples. 
While other countries aroused curiosity and then 
gratified it, these two occasioned, successively, 
illusion, disillusion, mystification. Which often 
led to abuse, but not so often, as regards Ireland, 
by Englishmen, as is represented by experienced 
controversialists who well know the effect of six- 
teenth-century phrases torn from their context 
and set up on a background of journalese, where 
the flavour of the original spelling fixes their seem- 
ing harshness in the memory of those controver- 
sialists cater for. 

There can be no more effective counterblast 
to this than a study of the books of the time 
recording journeys from everywhere to every- 
where, for from these it will be evident that what 
the Englishmen say of Ireland and the Irish is 
more favourable than what contemporary for- 
eigners usually say of the countries and nations 
that they visit; and also that where the English 
are unfavourable they are borne out by other 
foreigners. All adverse comment may be included 
under the charge of barbarism. Now Captain 
Cuellar, as unprejudiced a witness as could be 
required, being a Spaniard wrecked there from 
the Armada and a man who took everything as 
it came, invariably speaks of each Irishman as 



176 ^Touring in 1600 

"el selvaje, " which cannot be translated as any- 
thing but "the savage." 

But here lies the fact which supplies the con- 
trast between Spaniards and Irish, a contrast 
within the similarity which classed the two to- 
gether, as countries seen by foreigners. The lat- 
ter's disillusion was produced by the barbarism 
interwoven with the civilisation of Spain, but, 
in Ireland, by the civilisation co-existent with the 
known barbarism. It was a perpetual surprise to 
all visitors to find many of the individuals of a 
society that persisted in the crudest and rudest 
way of living, showing a force of intelligence and 
character, and in certain ways a refinement and 
a degree of education, which seemed to presuppose 
all the advantages that the best of European 
surroundings and training had to give. 

Most are content just to note these and other 
contrasts; the sum of their opinion as regarded the 
people being: "If they be bad you shall nowhere 
meet with worse; if they be good you shall hardly 
find better." 6 Of experience of this, Captain 
Cuellar's narrative stands out as a quintessen- 
tial example. It is equally handy for those who 
wish to prove the Irish the most charming, or the 
most abominable, nation that ever existed. He 
found them equally ready to strip him and to feed 
him, to wound and to heal, to betray and to 
shelter, to make him at home and to make him 
work. Compare with this the conclusions of an 



Christian Europe +77 

impartial Italian 7 seventy years earlier. The 
women he found very beautiful and white, but 
dirty; the people generally, very religious, yet 
do not consider stealing a sin. He was given to 
understand that Irish people looked down on such 
as were averse to share and share alike as regards 
the blessings of fortune, and certainly came across 
many on the road anxious to give effect to com- 
munistic theories; these he terms robbers. 

Aliens of a philosophic turn of mind, after pass- 
ing through the state of surprise, not so much, 
even, at their being this or that, as at their being 
content or able to continue to be both at once, 
turned to looking for reasons. The foreigner who 
brought to bear on this question as great an amount 
of knowledge, experience, and fair-mindedness as 
any was Sir John Davies, who, in his "Discov- 
ery," after referring to the Irishman's "contempt 
and scorn of all things necessary for the civil life 
of man," goes on, "for though the Irishry be a 
nation of great antiquity and wanted neither art 
nor valour and . . . were lovers of music and poet- 
ry, and all kinds of learning, and possessed a land 
abounding with all things necessary; yet ... I 
dare say boldly that never any person did build 
any stone or brick house for his private habitation, 
but such as have lately obtained estates accord- 
ing to the course of the law of England. Neither 
did any of them in all this time plant any gardens 
or orchards, enclose or improve their lands, live 



178 Touring in 1600 

together in settled villages or towns, nor make any 
provision for posterity; which being against all 
common sense and reason, must needs be imputed 
to those unreasonable customs which made their 
estates so uncertain and transitory in their pos- 



sessions." 



If Sir John Davies thought thus, it is not sur- 
prising that hastier foreigners who had less know- 
ledge of the ancient Irish civilisation, thought so 
too. We have just seen how, with regard to Spain, 
a history made up of the imaginary glories of an 
imaginary past helped to give the foreigner so 
high an idea of the individuals of the nation that 
the reality came as a shock. Here in Ireland, in 
this matter as in others, was a similarity with a 
difference. However true it may be that the Irish 
suffered from a radical lack of adaptability to 
modern conditions, the defects of it were undoubt- 
edly heightened in the eyes of strangers by the 
latter's ignorance of the conditions that the Irish 
could accept, the Brehon laws, for instance, and 
all that they imply, especially the check on their 
misuse by means of public opinion. 

Two features, however, were almost invariably 
commended: Irish harping and Irish girls. And 
the latter were at no disadvantage among the 
foreigners, since even in the far west which Cap- 
tain Cuellar visited, they spoke Latin fluently, 
although content with one garment, often with 
less. The only fault that could be found with 



AN IRISH DINNER 

Referring more particularly to the MacSweynes, "whose usages," 
says the author, John Derricke, in his "Image of Irelande," 15S1, 
"I beheld after the fashion there set down." From the copy (the 
only complete one known) in the Drummond Collection in the Li- 
brary of the University of Edinburgh. The cut also illustrates the 
contrasts in Irish life as seen by the foreigner, referred to in the 
chapter on Ireland. 



Christian Europe 179 

them was that of growing older as years went on, 
for to see an old Irishwoman before breakfast was, 
says Moryson, enough to turn a man's stomach. 
The country, too, received unlimited praise, with 
one abatement here also: in respect of its wetness; 
greater then than now, it may be said with some 
certainty. 8 Lithgow, in particular, when he visited 
"this sequestrate and most auspicuous monarchy," 
in 1619, discovered there "more Rivers, Lakes, 
Brooks, Strands, Quagmires, Bogs, and Marshes 
than in all Christendom besides." In five months 
he ruined six horses and was himself more tired 
than any of them. 

Great, however, were the fetiches, and they 
prevailed. The essentials of life, as they appeared 
to the Irishman, and as they appeared to most 
Europeans, differed so utterly, and the reasons 
underlying the differences were so unrealisable 
to each other, that Ireland remained compara- 
tively unvisited on account of its lack of the kind 
of interest for which travellers felt themselves 
bound to look. So, at least, the balance of the 
evidence seems to show, but the evidence is as 
conflicting here as in relation to everything else 
to do with Ireland. While the Bollandist fathers 
affirm that fifteen hundred foreigners made the 
pilgrimage to St. Patrick's Purgatory during the 
"Counter-Reformation," 9 the native contempo- 
rary Catholic, Phillip O'Sullivan, living at Madrid, 
had to go back beyond the memory of living man 



1 80 Touring in 1600 

for the written account of such a pilgrimage with 
which he wished to preface his history of the 
struggle against England. Or again, the excellent 
knowledge the Irish leaders in this struggle re- 
ceived of foreign affairs presupposes a great deal 
of going to and fro; yet De Thou, in a letter dated 
1605, 10 by which date he had been working at 
his history of his own times for many years and 
was well known as a man worth helping to corre- 
spondents all over Europe, writes that he has not 
hitherto come across any one who has personal 
knowledge of Ireland nor even any one who has 
talked with some one who has been there. 

Neither are there nearly so many casual re- 
ferences to visitors as one chances on with regard 
to other countries. Two exceptions which sug- 
gest the likelihood of others are, however, to be 
found mentioned in the correspondence between 
the English Privy Council and the Deputy at 
Dublin. 11 In 1572 the latter announces the ar- 
rival of three German earls with one Mr. Rogers, 
their guide, adding, to Lord Burghley, "accord- 
ing to your directions, they shall travel as little 
way into the country as I can manage." This is 
explained by the second reference, seven years 
later, when three more Germans come across with 
letters of introduction from the Privy Council, 
who half suspect them, young though they are, of 
being spies. But after the close of this period, in 
1666, we find a Frenchman 12 noting that the Pro- 



Christian Europe 181 

vost of Trinity College "seemed astonished that 
out of mere curiosity I should come to see Ire- 
land, which is a country so retired and almost un- 
known to foreign travellers." 



CHAPTER V 

MOHAMMEDAN EUROPE 

PART I 

THE GRAND SIGNOR 

" He who would behold these Times in their greatest glory, could 
not find a better scene than Turkey." 

Sir Henry Blount, 1635. 

FROM an historical point of view, a conti- 
nent consists not only of land but also of 
the seas from which attacks on the land 
can be made at short notice. For this reason Mo- 
hammedan Europe used to be far wider in extent 
than the Turkish territory, although the latter, 
indeed, bordered the Adriatic and stopped but a 
few miles short of Vienna. The Mediterranean 
was under Mohammedan, rather than Christian, 
control. Independent, too, in varying degrees, as 
were the rulers of North Africa, a bond of union 
existed among them owing to the peoples of the 
opposite coasts professing a creed different from 
theirs; a bond which was not interfered with by 
jealousies, inasmuch as the Sultan, or as he was 
usually termed then, the "Grand Signor" (or 
the "Grand Turk"), was so infinitely superior that 
there was never any question as to who should 
take the lead. His fleet, in fact, resembled that 



Mohammedan Europe 183 

of Queen Elizabeth, being made up of crews who 
pursued the same course of life in peace and in 
war — that of attacking wherever attacks seem 
likely to pay — with no more difference than this, 
that their behaviour was official in the second case 
and unofficial in the first. These corsairs, then, 
were all part of Mohammedan Europe, carrying 
out the foreign policy of the "Grand Signor" 
whether they had been previously adopted or 
were subsequently to be disowned. 

For the tourist, it has already become evident 
that he was almost certain to be confronted with 
the subjects, or the agents, of the Ottoman Em- 
pire, sooner or later; and then was to be made 
aware that, if one of the two existed on sufferance, 
that one was himself. Here is the beginning of 
a prayer introduced into the English liturgy in 
1565 ;* — "O Almighty and Everlasting God, our 
Heavenly Father, we thy disobedient and re- 
bellious children, now by thy just judgment sore 
afflicted, and in great danger to be oppressed, 
by thine and our sworn and most deadly enemies, 
the Turks ..." Historians agree that it was in 
the third quarter of the sixteenth century that the 
Turks' power reached its height. Rarely, later 
than that, are they mentioned otherwise than in- 
cidentally in the books from which modern Chris- 
tendom draws its information, and their earlier 
appearances are rather on account of sensational 
events and minor indirect influence than as one 



184 Touring in 1600 

of the Powers of Europe. Yet throughout this 
period, that is, for three-quarters of a century 
after decline, according to historians, had begun, 
the Turks were not only one of the Powers, but 
the chief one, equal with any in diplomacy, su- 
perior to any by land and by sea. 

At a date when our text-books represent Eng- 
land as wresting the supremacy on the water from 
Spain, contemporary opinion regarded Turkey 
as the first naval power. The chief of the sensa- 
tional events just referred to, the battle of Le- 
panto, is made to stand out, as that of Agincourt 
in English history, not because it typifies the 
course of events, but because it is a bright spot 
for the Christian pupil's eye to rest on. Within 
one year afterwards the Turks were ready to meet 
the Christians again: within two years they had 
the biggest fleet in the world: within three the 
Venetians agreed to pay 300,000 ducats (worth 
now about £500,000) as indemnity; and the fifth 
year afterwards the Venetian Lippomano takes it 
for granted, in speaking before the Signory — in 
other words, a man representing the pick of the 
diplomatists of the day speaking, after full con- 
sideration, to the most critical of audiences — 
that without the joint help of the Muscovites 
and Poles Christendom can never hope really to 
get the upper hand of the Turks. 2 

It must be remembered, too, that the Atlantic 
then was what the Pacific is now, the ocean of the 



Mohammedan Europe 185 

future; "command of the sea" meant, to the 
average sixteenth-century man, command of the 
Mediterranean, from the basin of which had risen 
all the civilisations of which he had any knowledge, 
through which lay the most used trade-route, 
and round which lay the biggest cities known to 
him: Cairo, Constantinople, Aleppo, and Fez (all 
Mohammedan) . 

But when this period of their supposed decline 
had set in, the Mohammedans, for the first time, 
ceased to be content with the Mediterranean 
and began to practise — 

Keeping in awe the bay of Portingale 
And all the ocean by the British shore, 

as Marlowe phrases it on behalf of Tamburlane. 
In 1616 Sir G. Carew writes to Sir T. Roe that 
the Turks are passing out of the Mediterranean 
now, had just carried off all the inhabitants of 
St. Marie, one of the Azores, and might be looked 
for round England soon. 3 In 1630 they took six 
ships near Bristol and had about forty of their 
vessels in British seas. 4 In the following year 
they sacked Baltimore in Ireland; but so far 
was the English government from being able to 
assert itself that Robert Boyle writes of his pas- 
sage from Youghal to Bristol past Ilfracombe 
and Minehead in 1635, that he passed safely 
"though the Irish coasts were then sufficiently 
infested with Turkish galleys," 6 while in 1645 



186 'Touring in 1600 

they called at Fowey and carried off into slavery 
two hundred and forty persons, including some 
ladies. 6 

Where the English were fortunate was in the 
raiders having made so late a start. Throughout 
the previous century the inhabitants of south- 
Europe coasts were always expecting the Turks. 
Philip II kept sixteen hundred coast-guardsmen 
always patrolling on the lookout for them: but 
then he was their chief enemy. More remarkable 
is the league 7 of the south of France maritime 
towns in 1585 to take steps to prevent their ruin 
from this cause; seeing that France had been the 
ally of the "Grand Turk" for half a century. 
In 1601 the Duke of Mantua and his sister, 
the Duchess of Ferrara, were captured close to the 
shore near Loreto by a Turkish galley. 8 As for 
the tourists themselves, Moryson passed a village 
near Genoa destroyed by Turks just before his 
arrival, when the belle of the district had been 
carried off the day after her wedding; and had 
Montaigne been but a few miles nearer to the 
coast than he actually was on a certain date we 
should perhaps never have had the "Essais" — 
thanks to the Turks. This would have been no 
more than a parallel case to that of Padre Jero- 
nimo Gracian, St. Teresa's confessor, who was 
captured between Messina and Rome in 1592, 
stripped naked, and made to row on the benches 
of a galley. He had with him his book "Armonia 



Mohammedan Europe 187 

mistica," which he had just finished, and had to 
look on while the pirates cleaned their firearms 
with leaves from it. 9 



Some preface of this kind is necessary to ex- 
plain the view tourists habitually take of the Ot- 
toman power, because the naval strength is less 
often alluded to than its achievements by land 
and its position as an Eastern conqueror. But 
even these latter call for a word or two to com- 
plete the picture. 

While it is true that the phrase concerning "the 
empire on which the sun never sets" had been 
invented by this time, in reference to that of Spain, 
the Turkish was regarded as, to quote a traveller 
of 161 2, "the greatest that is, or perhaps ever 
was from the beginning," just as the phrase "the 
sick man of Europe" had also been employed, 
but in reference not to Turkey, but to England 
(in 1558). 10 To these words may be added those 
of another level-headed, well-educated English- 
man, Sir Henry Blount, "the only modern people 
great in action and whose empire hath so suddenly 
invaded the world and fixed itself on such firm 
foundations as no other ever did." Whereas, late 
as Blount's visit to Constantinople was, he found 
the wiser Turks considering the Christians not 
so strong as they used to be; not so strong as the 
Persians. Busbecq, too, in his earlier days, sums 
up the outlook in despair, concluding that the 



1 88 "Touring in 1600 

worst feature of it all is that the Turks are used 
to conquering, the Christians to being conquered; 
and confirms it later (when he was sixty-three and 
had had thirty-eight years' experience of Euro- 
pean politics, mostly official, including eight years 
at Constantinople), by writing that the object of 
the Turks' war (1585) with the Persians is to leave 
themselves freer to extinguish Christendom, and 
that, the former war over, " they will fight us for 
existence and empire; and the chances are greatly 
in their favour." As late as a century after this 
the Turks were besieging Vienna with an army 
200,000 strong. 

But the test of the hold of a given idea on the 
minds of ordinary men, such as these tourists 
mostly were, is the frequency with which it recurs 
in the works of their favourite writers. Now, badly 
off indeed would the seventeenth-century novel- 
ist have been without the Turkish corsair to defer 
the wedding-day for a respectable number of 
pages; and the echo of the convention has at- 
tained immortality in the stock quotation from 
Moliere, "Mais que diable allait-il dans cette 
galere?" There is a passage, too, in "Othello" 
which illustrates the above beliefs still better — 
Othello's last words : — 

Set you down this — 
And say besides, that in Aleppo once, 
Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk 
Beat a Venetian and traduced the State 



Mohammedan Europe 189 

I took by the throat the circumcised dog 
And smote him, thus — 

There are an infinite number of passages in Shake- 
speare, whose meaning in relation to the plot 
seems so obvious and so sufficient, that the fur- 
ther half-unconscious sub-meaning is never en- 
quired into, and is, in fact, passed by until some 
special knowledge, like that of the author of the 
"Diary of Master William Silence," throws light 
on it. In this case, an acqaintance with sixteenth- 
century Christian travel in Mohammedan lands 
compels the idea that Othello's mind turns at the 
last to what he knows his hearers would unhesi- 
tatingly recognise as his greatest deed, the killing 
a Turk in Turkish territory; as the greatest pos- 
sible claim to forgiveness and to fame. Moryson 
left his sword behind him at Venice, as a thing 
which it would be madness to use. 

The state of mind, then, of the Christian of this 
period in face of the Turks may be compared to 
that of a Chinaman towards Europeans between 
the fall of Pekin and the victories of Japan. As 
for the reasons of the Turks' success, as noted by 
tourists, they refer primarily to the army, since it 
was on the army that the Turks were, and had been, 
dependent for their greatness. First, in regard 
to the soldiers' behaviour to their own people, 
discipline was so severe that the country people 
took no precautions against robbery, "whereas," 
says one (an Englishman), "we cannot raise 



190 "Touring in 1600 

two or three companies but they pilfer and rifle 
wheresoever they pass." Teetotalism, again, was 
prescribed by their religion, and although the 
prohibition was losing its force, the infractions 
were secret and not practicable in camp. The 
benefit of this lay not merely in the freedom from 
disorderly behaviour but in the fact that the 
carriage of wine was a serious item in the expenses 
of a Christian army. Then besides orderliness 
and sobriety and the absence from the camp of 
gambling and women, there was personal cleanli- 
ness and sanitation. On these two last points the 
" Franks," as Europeans were generally known in 
the East, had much said to them to which there 
was no effective reply, even on their own showing. 
It was common knowledge among Europeans who 
stayed at home that they were despised in the 
East for their carelessness about drainage, and a 
typical case concerning cleanliness is that recorded 
of one Englishman. One day he fell overboard: 
"Now God has washed you," said the Turks. 

Another characteristic that rendered the army 
more efficient was the extent to which autocracy 
was in favour among them, a principle which, 
applied throughout all grades, caused discipline 
to be a matter of course. Among European 
armies there was nothing that could be termed 
discipline, only personal influence. In this respect, 
both the cause and the effect, the striking resem- 
blance, in relation to the Europeans contempo- 



AN EXAMPLE OF TURKISH FINE ART 

Miniature illustrating some of the characteristics of Turkish art 
which Delia Valle and other contemporary travellers prized so highly. 
The brilliant colouring of the original throws into relief much detail 
in the flowers which is necessarily lost in reproduction. (From Brit. 
Mus-. Add. MS. 15,153 ; a copy of the Turkish translation of the 
Fables of Bidpai, dated 1589.) 



Mohammedan Europe 191 

rary with them, of the sixteenth-century Turk 
with the modern Japanese, stands out. Other 
respects were courtesy, frugality, cleverness in 
handicraft and the fine arts, and, on the other 
side, lower ideas about women. It was only, like- 
wise, where the copying of the human form was 
concerned that the Turk technique fell below 
Western achievement; Delia Valle, who was used 
to the best that Europe could produce, further 
notes their relative excellence in cooking, book- 
binding, tailoring, gardening, and, especially, all 
leather work. 

From our point of view the Franks had also much 
to learn from the Turks as to kindness to animals, 
but that did not even appear a superfluous virtue 
to the former, who only mention it as a curiosity, 
except Busbecq, who remarks that Turks' horses 
lived the longer for it, were more useful, and were 
companions as well as useful. 

It may be noted, further, that the Turks had 
acquired the use of pyjamas ("linen breeches and 
quilted waistcoats," says Fynes Moryson), while 
Western Europe was in process of being converted 
to night-dresses. Says the contemporary play- 
wright, Middleton, in his "Mayor of Queenbor- 
ough," "Books in women's hands are as much 
against the hair (t, e. against the grain), methinks, 
as to see men wear stomachers, or night-rails" 
(t. e. night-shirts). Even with ladies the process 
was not a short one. N. Brooke, in Southern 



192 Touring in 1600 

Italy, late in the eighteenth century, discussed 
night-wear with a lady there; it was not the 
custom to wear anything, she explained, in the 
warmer months; for one thing, it was cooler so; 
and for another, so much easier to catch the 
fleas. 

It would be strange if among all these visitors 
some were not found noting signs of demorali- 
sation. The chief of these is Moryson, who, with- 
out explaining what means he has of comparing 
past and present, finds the Emperors less warlike, 
their whole forces not available through fear of 
internal rebellion, the pick of the troops not equal 
to the pick of times gone by; a shortage of fire- 
arms; a decrease in religious zeal; an increase in 
extortion and oppression. This latter Delia Valle 
notes, too, on his re turn- journey, when, at Cy- 
prus, a governor had left, and while a succes- 
sor was on the way out, orders came reinstating 
the former; which implied bribery and outbid- 
ding. 

More general are the references to the increase 
of wine-drinking in defiance of the prohibition of 
it by their religion; a habit which was bound 
to be noticed by the traveller, since the ambassa- 
dors' houses were used for the purpose princi- 
pally, at first solely. One old gentleman in Bus- 
becq's time tried to evade his conscience, too; 
he gave a great shout before each drink, to warn 



Mohammedan Europe 193 

his soul to stow itself away in some far corner 
of his body lest it should be defiled by the wine 
he was about to enjoy and have hereafter to an- 
swer for his sin. Towards the end of the next cen- 
tury concealment was abandoned, and at a Greek 
village outside Adrianople, whither an English- 
man went during plague-time, he found the pop- 
ulation living by the sale of wine to Turks, who 
came in troops to get drunk: the parson did the 
biggest trade because he had the biggest ware- 
house — his church. 

It was frequently noticed, moreover, that their 
most capable workmen were mostly foreigners, 
and that two inventions which attracted every- 
one's notice — carrier-pigeons and incubation, 
both practised exclusively in Turkish territory and 
the latter on a scale which would qualify the pro- 
prietor for knighthood to-day — were not of Turk- 
ish origin. Nevertheless, the fact remained that 
many of the products of civilisation existed 
mainly, or at their best, in Turkish dominion 
alone; and this, and the prestige it implies, have 
to be recognised and remembered as two of the 
main facts in sixteenth-century history. It may 
be added that in no way can this be so satisfacto- 
rily ascertained as through travellers' narratives. 

Yet the Turks were deemed barbarians by the 
Frank; he and they practically never spoke each 
other's language, which put out of the question 
those casual conversations which pave the way to 



194 'Touring in 1600 

mutual understanding. Their faith remained to 
him a " filthy error " ; and to the Christians, whose 
chief bond of unity had just been riven by the Re- 
formation, the remaining one, that of a common 
literature, was all the more to be prized. No Turk, 
as one observer remarks, would write history be- 
cause no Turk would believe it; it being unsafe to 
record the truth, and impracticable to ascertain it. 
Accordingly, the complete Livy which the Grand 
Signor was reputed to have inherited from the 
Byzantine Emperors had only its selling value 
to Christians for him. He had refused one offer 
of 5000 piastres (about £6500 now) for it, think- 
ing that the offer proved it was worth more. 
But Delia Valle knew better than to make offers 
to the Grand Signor: the way to buy his books 
was to bribe his librarian, and he only missed se- 
curing it for 10,000 crowns (say £12,500) through 
the librarian at Constantinople not being able 
to trace it. 

Constantinople — the change from Byzantine 
Emperors' days was striking. But the glorious- 
ness of the position was unchangeable, and the 
sight of it from the sea was more glorious than 
ever, the finest city to see, then, that earth held. 
With its various levels, each one descending as 
it was the nearer to the shore, a marvellous pro- 
portion of the roofs, and even windows, came in 
view; and the waywardness of the designs, and 



Mohammedan Europe 195 

the balconies with their lattice-work, were thrown 
into relief by the brilliance and the variety of the 
colouring; while the colouring itself stood out 
against the white of the walls, the green of in- 
numerable cypresses, and the darkness of the 
leaden domes. 

But once inside, and all was spoilt. The streets 
were very narrow and ill-kept; a raised foot-path 
each side took up two-thirds of the way, and the 
other third was barely practicable for asses; 
carcasses of animals, and even of men, were left 
lying there till they rotted. The only street 
which was a pleasure to pass was the long straight 
one which led from the gate of Adrianople to 
the Palace, and was used for all occasions of state, 
such as the entrances of ambassadors. Dignity 
was a thing that the Turks understood; it was 
characteristic that the most impressive proces- 
sion to be seen ordinarily in Europe was that 
to the Grand Signor's Privy Council, more im- 
pressive even than the Cardinals going to Con- 
sistory at Rome. Yet the private houses, as seen 
from the streets, were no more attractive than the 
streets themselves : of wood mostly, or wood and 
mud. Some fine houses remained from pre- 
Mohammedan days, but besides those, only the 
mosques, and some other public buildings, were 
other than repulsive. The palace that was called 
Constantine's was already in ruins, abandoned 
but for one great room used as a tent-factory. 



196 'Touring in 1600 

Even the baths were not in all respects superior 
to those of dirty Christendom, but that was be- 
cause the rich men had private ones. In Turkey 
none but the poor used the public baths; in 
Christendom few but Germans and the ailing 
rich used any. The reason the houses were so 
wretched was " that they might not be worth 
taking from the child when the father died"; for 
the property of a dead man was the Sultan's; the 
latter's palace was free from restrictions; only, 
few there were who saw it. 

This happened sometimes when the court was 
away and the tourist could bribe the right man. 
Then, besides all that might be expected, he saw 
the best Zoo in Europe; and, in the middle of a 
wood, a certain pond, all lined with porphyry, 
wherein it was one "Grand Signor's" diversion to 
send the girls of the harem and shoot at them with 
bullets that stuck to their skins without doing 
harm; and he could regulate the depth of the 
water till they had to keep afloat to breathe; 
tiring of that, he let the water down and sent the 
eunuchs in to fetch them out — if alive. 

The only recognised means, however, of seeing 
the inside was to accompany an ambassador on 
one of the two occasions when he saw the Grand 
Turk; when he came and when he left. This hap- 
pened on a Sunday or a Tuesday, and could be 
but hurried glimpses while going to and from the 
audience chamber to kiss the robe of the great 



Mohammedan Europe 197 

sovereign whose position was such that the am- 
bassador was taken off his horse at the gate and 
searched and led to the audience by two men, each 
one holding a hand. When the English ambassa- 
dor, in 1647, at his first audience, did not bow low 
enough, the men on either side of him thrust his 
head down to the required level. 11 He was further 
obliged to be lavish with his presents and content 
that they should be received as tribute, and that 
no present should be given in return but a garment. 
In the estimate for the cost of the embassy which 
the above-mentioned French league proposed to 
send to Constantinople 2000 ecus d'or au soleil 
(over £4000), one twelfth of the total cost, is 
allotted for presents and tips. Neither did the 
Grand Signor ever speak to a Christian. 

The interest of life in Constantinople was 
largely discounted by the ways of the natives, 
for courteous as the Turk was as a man, as a 
Mohammedan things were very different. While, 
on the one hand, incredible as it may sound, a 
Turkish sailor was always civil even if you got 
in his way on board ship, a Christian his nation 
"regard no more than a dog," and if the Christian 
wore green, which was reserved for Mohammed's 
kindred, he was lucky to escape injury. One 
stranger with a pair of green breeches had them 
taken away from him in the street. In any case, 
there was a likelihood of ill-usage. No one dared 
to refuse, or even hesitate, when a Turk com- 



198 'Touring in 1600 

manded, without regretting it, except Delia Valle, 
who carried a passport from the Grand Turk him- 
self, and even then, upon his refusal to pay his re- 
spects to a certain governor in the customary way, 
which was both undignified and costly, the whole 
company were so proud of him that the Greek 
nuns could not refrain from kissing him in public. 
Typical experiences were those of Moryson, whose 
hat struck a Turk one day as so quaint that he 
borrowed it for a few minutes for his own use — 
not as a hat — and returned it to Moryson's head; 
and of one Manwaring 12 in Aleppo; — "we could 
not walk in the streets but they would buffet us 
and use us very vilely: . . . one day I met with a 
Turk . . . saluting me in this manner: . . . took 
me fast by one of the ears and so did lead me up and 
down the street; and if I did chance to look sour 
upon him he would give me such a wring that I did 
verily think he would have pulled off my ear and 
this he continued with me for the space of one 
hour, with much company following me, some 
throwing stones at me, and some spitting on me; 
and because I would not laugh at my departure 
from him, gave me such a blow with a staff that 
did strike me to the ground." 

But that is not the end of the story. Man- 
waring went home and complained to the Jani- 
zary who acted as guardian to his party. The 
latter took a stick, found the Turk, who was of 
high enough position to go about in cloth of gold 



Mohammedan Europe 199 

and crimson velvet, and thrashed him till he 
could not stand. 

This was a form of protection open to all. The 
payment was low; the Janizary's standard of 
honour and honesty very high, their power prac- 
tically unlimited. Moryson was one of a band of 
a hundred, who accidentally set fire to the grass 
while cooking their supper. Out came a Janizary 
from the local governor and compelled them to 
use their clothes to quench the flames ; which done, 
he drove them all, priests and armed men in- 
cluded, before him to the governor, with no 
weapon but a stick, and whoever lagged behind 
he cried, "Wohowe Rooe," and hit him. 

But with regard to insults, it must be remem- 
bered that certain characteristics of the Frank the 
Turks never ceased to despise. They wished their 
enemies "no more rest than a Christian's hat." 
Four things especially puzzled them, why (i) the 
latter walked about when he might sit down, (2) 
wore his hair long when he might get it cut short, 
(3) shaved instead of growing a beard, refusing 
sometimes to do business with beardless Christians, 
believing such to be under age, (4) bought mate- 
rial for clothes and then cut bits out; themselves 
wearing their garments plain. 

Barring the results of misunderstanding and 
contempt, there was plenty of interest in life in 
Constantinople. The Greeks, at any rate, whom 
Delia Valle visited, were not grievously oppressed, 



200 Touring in 1600 

considering that while among the Turks to be re- 
puted rich was more dangerous than any crime; 
he found the ladies at a wedding dressed in stuff 
that cost twelve zecchini a "picco" (at least 
£20 a yard) and, as their custom was, they fre- 
quently retired to change their dresses, of which 
they brought eight or ten. There were the market 
places to see, which were used as a promenade, 
especially by the ladies, who in this respect had a 
decidedly better opportunity to make acquaint- 
ances than was generally supposed; their veils did 
not prevent them making themselves recognised, 
and the press of people was sufficiently great to 
allow of an "unintentional" dig in the ribs as a 
means of introduction to an attractive foreigner. 
Tommasetto, Delia Valle's servant, was even 
more favoured because he conformed to Turkish 
standards by growing a beard, and accordingly, 
in passing the streets, the ladies frequently 
touched his cheeks, saying always the same word, 
which he found meant "handsome man!" If, 
in the market or elsewhere, a Christian wanted 
to buy food, there was no such thing for him as a 
fixed price or a bargain; he gave the Turk money 
and the Turk gave what he chose to give. Every 
Friday was a slave market, where the tourist 
might see his countrywomen for sale; a virgin 
would fetch about £25, and an average widow £9, 
as money is now, and if the tourist was not care- 
ful of his company, he would find himself sold as 



Mohammedan Europe 201 

he walked through the streets; Fynes Moryson, 
when very ill, was told by the Janizary who was 
his guide that an old woman had just offered ioo 
aspers (thirty shillings) for him. 

For the population of Constantinople and what 
the population consisted of, nothing more can be 
stated than the beliefs on the subject, of which 
this one may be mentioned, that in less than 
three months in 1615 there died of plague 120,000 
Turks, 2000 Jews, and 18,000 Christians. Plague 
was always present in Constantinople; no pre- 
cautions were taken against it; when a man died 
from plague, his clothes were put up for auc- 
tion immediately, and bought, and worn. But 
the fatalism which decided the Turks' attitude 
towards plague did not manifest itself in all direc- 
tions; their behaviour in danger at sea was the 
reverse of what might be expected on Christian- 
manned ships. After they had taken Cyprus, 
moreover, which suffered greatly from locusts, it 
was prescribed that every farmer should bring a 
fixed quantity of locusts' eggs yearly to a stated offi- 
cial, who was to see the eggs ground to powder and 
the powder thrown into the sea. They had their 
medicines too, and were the only people in Europe 
who had hitherto managed to make medicine-tak- 
ing pleasant, because they alone had sherbets and 
took medicines in their sherbet. Moreover, what 
may be said of drinks applies equally to games. 
For swings, they were part of every Turkish fes- 



202 Touring in 1600 

tivity; likewise roundabouts and "great wheels"; 
how well acquainted Christians were with all 
these may be judged by the fact that both an 
Englishman and an Italian describe them all in 
detail. Yet with all that we have imported, there 
still remains one hint to take. A Mohammedan 
crowd kept itself in order for the most part then; 
George Sandys, in nine months' stay in Constan- 
tinople, never saw a Mohammedan quarrel with 
one of his own creed ; but to restrain the excitabil- 
ity that might occur in a crowd, they had police- 
men in leathern jackets, bearing bladders, both 
bladders and jackets being smeared with oil and 
tar, which commanded the respect of the cleanly 
Turks in their most youthful moments. 

The relations between Turks and Christians 
being what they were, it is not surprising that one 
feature of life in the sixteenth century as seen by 
travellers should be more often under notice in 
Turkish dominion than elsewhere, at any rate to 
the traveller who was a Christian — examples of 
human misery. Many such there are scattered 
about the pages under notice, such and such a 
name comes up, probably for the only time in any 
writing that remains, just an incident connected 
with it, or a life-history in a few lines; nothing 
else known of the man or ever likely to be, oblivion 
before and oblivion after; just that one glimpse of 
utter misery. There is the merchant of Ragusa in 
Blount's caravan who was defiant towards some 



Mohammedan Europe 203 

Turks; beaten with axes and iron maces, two ribs 
broken; left behind helpless; of him it is very un- 
likely there was anything further to tell beyond 
what the wolves knew. Then there was another 
whom Blount came across by the side of the Dan- 
ube, formerly a man and a Christian, now cas- 
trated and a Turk; enduring degradation and re- 
morse only so as to be able to revenge himself by 
throwing Turkish children into the river at night; 
every week had its victim. One John Smith, 
again, became a Venetian soldier and was sent to 
Crete, where he borrowed forty-eight shillings 
(say twelve guineas) from his officer. Being un- 
able to pay it when the five years' term of service 
was up, he was turned over to the officer's succes- 
sor with his debt; so again at the end of the tenth 
year. There Lithgow found him at the end of 
fifteen years, no nearer release, and paid his debt 
and obtained a passage back for him. Then there 
was the sailor-traveller who was made a galley 
slave by the Turks and was placed beside an old 
Russian. Twenty-four years had the latter been 
there; attempts to escape had been without result 
beyond the loss of ears and nose, and he was under 
threat of burning for the next attempt; yet he was 
only waiting for a man who was ready to be his 
companion. The sailor-traveller was ready; and 
they succeeded, after swimming two miles with a 
three-headed arrow right through the old Rus- 
sian's thigh. 



204 'Touring in 1600 

But, indeed, these individual Turks and Chris- 
tians were no more than carrying out in person 
the general relations that existed between the 
races. That the former's navy reached the At- 
lantic, their army to Vienna, and their shadow 
over all Europe, has already been illustrated; and 
also that they were setting an example in many of 
the directions which imply being ahead in civilisa- 
tion, summed up in verse which Gruberus-of-the- 
guide-book quotes as an aid to remembering the 
notabilia of Turkey. 

Meschita, maratium, charavansaraja, lavacra, 
Fontes et pontes fluviorum, et strata viarum. 

More than all these, in sixteenth-century eyes, 
was the fact that they possessed Constantinople, 
recognised as the city whose possession necessarily 
carried with it the political headship of the world 
by reason of its situation taken in conjunction 
with its imperial associations. They dominated 
Greece, also, the source of intellectual light, and 
Egypt, the home of science. More than all these, 
they ruled at Jerusalem. 



Mohammedan Europe 205 



PART II 



JERUSALEM AND THE WAY THITHER 



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hiit uns lie - ber her - re got ! Ky - ri - e e - ley - son I 
PILGRIM-SONG IN 16TH-CENTURY SETTING 1 

From all points of view except that of geography 
Jerusalem was forming part of Europe; the spot 
where was localised what was recognised as the 
prime factor in their mental and spiritual ances- 
try, life, and future. What it is now to a convinced 
Zionist, it was then to the average Christian. 
But the idea of securing Jerusalem as an axiom, 
almost an incidental axiom, of practical politics 
requires, perhaps, a word or two of explanation, 
considering how far the modern habit of weeding 
out theology from all politics but party-politics 
has gone; and this the more so since little help is 
to be had from histories, written, as they natu- 
rally are, to defend, attack, or explain the present 
rather than the past, and dealing, consequently, 



206 Touring in 1600 

with the past, only in so far as it throws light, 
not on itself, but on things current. 

History having become specialised into ac- 
counts of the political events of the past in re- 
lation to to-day and to-morrow, the interest of 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries has come 
to be concentrated on the development of na- 
tional and centralised governments. It is there- 
fore left out of account that the ideas at the 
back of the average sixteenth century man's 
mind were such as assumed that the world, and 
Europe in particular, was under theocratic gov- 
ernment; and consequently that what seem to us 
independent sovereigns developing national mon- 
archies seemed to him so many deputies of the 
Almighty — "many," because of the sins of the 
world — ruling by permission until the appointed 
time should come for the unification of Europe 
under the one true head, the completion of whose 
work would be a final gigantic Crusade which 
would pulverise the Turk and secure Jerusalem for 
Christianity, world without end. In fact, the con- 
quest of Jerusalem held much the same place in 
international politics as "disarmament" with us; 
just so far ideal as to make discussion of it in- 
teresting, and sufficiently impracticable to be com- 
mon ground. If these ideas seem too mediaeval 
to be attributed to the sixteenth century, it is be- 
cause their more "modern" ideas have been dis- 
proportionately insisted on since; seven-eighths of 



Mohammedan Europe 207 

their life was mediaeval — and a large part of the 
remaining eighth the majority would have wished 
to disown. 

Where the leaven of new ideas was showing it- 
self was not in a cessation, but in a decrease, of 
pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The state of transition 
is definitely marked by the diversity of the preoc- 
cupations which men carried thither; the change 
itself by the discontinuance of the pilgrim galleys. 
This took place between 1581 and 1586. It had 
been usual for two galleys to sail to Jaffa and back 
each year specially for pilgrims, from Venice, 
starting on different dates between Ascension Day 
and early in July; the latter date being dictated by 
the weather, the former doubtless by everybody's 
desire to wait to witness the Espousal of the Sea. 
In 1581 a boat 2 started on May 7 or 8 with fifty- 
six on board, all told ; this was wrecked in the Adri- 
atic, thirty persons only being saved. On July 14, 
another left, but the pilgrims by this had to change 
into a smaller vessel at Cyprus. In 1587, however, 
a guide-book writer, 3 advising on the basis of his 
experiences the previous year, tells the pilgrim to 
take the first boat to Tripoli in the spring, before 
Easter if possible, otherwise there may be none 
towards Palestine till August, since the pilgrim- 
galleys have ceased sailing, although the proces- 
sion is still kept up at Venice in which every in- 
tending pilgrim had the honour of walking on the 
right hand of a noble, bearing a lighted wax can- 



2o8 "Touring in 1600 






die. That this discontinuance was sudden and 
recent may be assumed from the fact that a priest 
who was visiting the shrines of Christendom as 
the deputy of Philip II, who had vowed such a 
pilgrimage when his son was ill, hurried 4 on his 
way to Italy in 1587, expecting to find a pilgrim- 
galley ready to start. But that this discontinuance 
was not merely temporary is clear enough from 
all subsequent writers. 

The complement of a pilgrim-galley may be 
taken as about one hundred, although in 1561 one 
carried four hundred. After 1581 nobody men- 
tions finding more than twenty-three "Franks" 
at Jerusalem together, not even at Easter, when 
"indulgences " were doubled. Possibly the attack 
on "indulgences" which prefaced the best-known 
schism of the century suggested, or testifies to, 
an incredulity concerning them which might be 
felt far outside the districts which persisted in 
schism. If felt, this would re-act on pilgrimages, 
the nominal object whereof was to secure "indul- 
gences." On the other hand, there is no reason for 
assuming a decline in devotion; the non-Catholic 
point of view is well expressed by Moryson: — 
" I had no thought to expiate any least sin of mine; 
much less did I hope to merit any grace from God 
— yet I confess that through the grace of God the 
very places struck me with a religious horror and 
filled my mind with holy motions." One reason 
for the decrease is certain, however, and sufficient 



Mohammedan Europe 209 

to account for it alone; the increase iii the dangei 1 
and the cost of the journey through the stopping 
places on the route falling into the hands of tlie 
Turks, and, still more, the changed attitude of the 
Turks towards Western Christians as a result of 
these victories. 

Yet this abolition of the direct and speedy route 
was not all loss to him who was as much tourisl as 
pilgrim. He saw the more. There was a pleasant 
choice of routes, too; for, of course, thenceforth 
each one had to make his own arrangements. 
The main routes numbered three; on each of 
them further choice was possible. The three were 

via (1) Jaffa, (2) Damascus, (3) Cairo. 

The starting-point was sometimes Marseilles, 
but rarely; almost invariably it would be Venice. 
Here, too, information was obtainable better than 
elsewhere. At the Franciscan monastery "Delia 
Vigna" was a travel-bureau in charge of the M Pa- 
dre Provisore di Gierusalemme" who survived 
the galleys: in 1609 he was a Venetian noble The 
post had a semi-official character, since its holder 
was charged to view the permit to visit Jerusalem, 
the "Placet" as it was called, lacking vvliich a 
Roman Catholic would incur excommunication ; 
and also to assure himself that the pilgrim had 
one hundred zecchini to spend, in the absence of 
which the permit was cancelled. The resped in 
which this "Placet," which required eleven signa- 



2io "Touring in 1600 

tures, was held was immense; one soldier, even, 
who had touched at Tripoli and Jaffa in the course 
of serving Ferdinand de' Medici, came back to 
Leghorn to get leave before visiting Jerusalem. 
But the warden of the friars at Jerusalem had 
authority to absolve from the excommunication 
such as did not pass through Italy. No "Placets" 
were granted to women. 

These preliminaries over, a start for Jaffa 
would be made by taking ship for one of the 
islands in the Levant on the chance of finding an- 
other ship thence to Jaffa itself, which extended 
the four-five weeks' voyage of earlier days into 
one of unknown duration. Arriving at Jaffa, past 
the rock from which St. Peter had his fishing- 
lesson, no city was to be seen; little but two 
towers. 

In times gone by when the pilgrims arrived in 
bulk, word was sent to the warden of the monas- 
tery of San Salvatore at Jerusalem, and they did 
not start the land journey till he came to supervise 
it. But now the traveller had to arrange as best 
he could with Turk or Arab and reach Rama 
somehow or other; probably on an ass without 
saddle, bridle, or stirrups. At Rama he would 
find Sion House, built by Philip the Good on the 
site of the house of Nicodemus, and nominally a 
monastery; all the monks had gone, but it re- 
mained a lodging for pilgrims. At Rama dwelt 
the official Christian guide to Jerusalem, into 



PILGRIMS LEAVING JAFFA FOR JERUSALEM, 

1581 

From the MS. of Sebastien Werro, cure of Fribourg (Bibl. de la 
Societe Economique de Fribourg). Showing also the fort at Jaffa, 
the caves in which pilgrims had to lodge until permission was given 
to depart, and the peremptory methods of the Turks when a pilgrim 
got out of the line of march. 



Mohammedan Europe 



211 



whose charge you had no choice but to commit 
yourself; if anyone tried to evade his control and 
charges, the dragoman could send word to the 
Arabs, and life passed the limit of barely endur- 
able, which was the pilgrim's ordinary lot. The 
dragoman dwelt at Rama for the reason that the 
routes to Jerusalem, west, north, and south, con- 
verged there ; and for that same reason we will go 
on to consider route No. 2, via Damascus. 

There was at times the chance of approaching 
by the Damascus road, and yet going mainly by 
sea; that was when there was a ship bound for 
Acre or some port on the coast of the Holy Land 
other than Jaffa. But in practically all cases the 
Damascus route meant getting to Constantinople 
first, and this is equally true of route No. 3. 

From Europe to Constantinople there were 
several main routes. Two tourists took the trade 
route from Danzig through Lemberg to Kame- 
netz, the frontier town of Poland, then down the 
river Pruth to Reni, a centre of the caviare 
trade, and so down the Danube to its mouth and 
by sea to Constantinople, which last part coin- 
cided with the route of the Russian pilgrims who 
sailed down the Dnieper or the Don and coasted 
along the Black Sea shore. A weird crew on a 
weird journey, in boats which, big or little, were 
used to being mounted on wheels, through coun- 
try where nothing living was to be seen but wild 
beasts and nothing to mark distances save the 



2 1 2 'Touring in 1600 

mouths of tributary streams. Then there was 
Busbecq's way, who used the Danube, but not to 
the mouth; leaving it soon after Belgrade had 
been passed and travelling by the great road 
through Sofia and Adrianople along which the 
Grand Signor marched to bring war and Christian 
ambassadors came to buy peace. From this road, 
going westward, diverged the roads to Spalato 
and to Ragusa, the two most direct ways to Ven- 
ice. Yet but few tourists travelled by these two 
roads. It was not that they were little used. Be- 
sides the ambassadors to Constantinople from 
Ragusa itself, which meant at least two journeys 
each year on account of the tribute, Delia Valle 
speaks of the ordinary post taking that direction 
and the Venetian representative at Constanti- 
nople keeping forty Schiavonians for post work, 
who travelled on foot. The mountain passes were 
terrible, and the danger from wolves and dogs in 
Servia considerable; also from robbers. At cer- 
tain points on Mount Rhodope, for instance, men 
were stationed to beat drums when the road was 
supposed to be clear of them, and a feature of the 
district was the "Palangha," a roughly fortified 
enclosure large enough for sixty or seventy Turks 
to live within and to serve as a temporary shelter 
to those who lived roundabout; for the robber 
bands sometimes numbered three hundred. Ex- 
cept at the regular stopping places few people 
were seen, for the Christians established their vil- 



Mohammedan Europe 213 

lages off the main road for fear of the Turks, who 
were so far uncertain of their control over them 
as to use continual severities. A French ambas- 
sador, whose guide led him astray near one of 
these villages, saw all the inhabitants making off 
to the mountains, mistaking him for a Turkish 
official. And their houses he says were no better 
than "gabions couverts." But with these, as 
with all people who live under a despotism, espe- 
cially a foreign military one, their chief protection 
consisted in appearing more miserable than they 
were; there was no part of Europe where food was 
better or cheaper; neither did the people treat 
strangers with the ferocity produced by extreme 
wretchedness, and at Sofia, in fact, Blount found 
the opposite extreme — "nor hath it yet lost the 
old Grecian civility, for of all the cities I ever 
passed, either in Christendom or without, I never 
saw anywhere where a stranger is less troubled 
either with affronts or with gaping." 

Still, it was borderland, and mainly Moham- 
medan; the sea route was common ground and 
frequented by Christians. But there was a com- 
promise which was often in use — to travel by sea 
to Zante and thence through Greece, finishing the 
journey either by sea or land. It might seem that 
this direction would appeal to a considerable pro- 
portion of tourists during the period that is called 
" Renascence," but the extent to which the ac- 
quaintance with, and interest in, Greek thought, 



214 ^touring in 1600 

first-hand, at this time has been exaggerated may 
be accurately estimated by the fact that not a 
single one of these travellers visited Athens except 
by accident. It must be admitted, however, that 
things were not made easy for them; one of those 
who traversed Greece was Dallam, in company 
with seven others; part of the journey they were 
stalked by natives trying to arrange with their 
guide to cut their throats: and every time they 
slept but once it was in their clothes, either on the 
ground or on the floor. One of the most interest- 
ing places that might be visited on this route was 
Salonica, a Jew republic under the suzerainty of 
the Grand Signor, with a training-school for 
priests; here and Safed near Galilee were the only 
places where Hebrew was supposed to be spoken. 
All these ways to Constantinople have been 
mentioned in the order into which they fall ac- 
cording to the extent to which they were used 
by European tourists, the least frequented first. 
Last comes the most usual, by sea all the way from 
Venice. And here, however different might be the 
experiences of this one and that one, two points of 
interest were invariable. First, they passed Aby- 
dos and Sestos, where out must come the note-book, 
and Leander must be dragged into it. Secondly, 
Troy. The learned say that these tourists located 
Troy on the south, instead of on the north, bank 
of the river, but the more important point is that 
what they did see stirred their feelings : it was no 



Mohammedan Europe 215 

mere mild interest. The Trojan heroes were as 
real to them as Barbarossa and Don Juan, not 
only because no doubts had blurred their individ- 
uality, much less darkened their existence, but 
because there was less competition for the posi- 
tion of hero owing to the narrower range of their 
knowledge. Another characteristic of theirs, was 
that Virgil was clearer in their association of 
ideas, Homer dimmer, at the moment of seeing 
Troy's ruins, than would be the case with a mod- 
ern tourist: the quotation that arises most nat- 
urally in the mind of the finest scholar of them all 
was 

Hie Dolopum manus, hie saevus tendebat Achilles; 
Classibus hie locus; hie acies certare solebant. 

And so to Constantinople. But not the pil- 
grims' Constantinople of former days, as marvel- 
lous a centre, perhaps, of ecclesiastical civilisation 
and dignity, and of relics, as has been seen. St. 
Sophia was still there and its doors still of the 
wood of Noah's ark, but it was a mosque where 
the inquisitive Christian was allowed to look 
round on sufferance. Only two churches in the 
city were allowed to remain in Western Christian 
hands, St. Nicholas and Our Lady of Constanti- 
nople, the latter still a place of pilgrimage though 
served by one solitary Dominican friar. Gone 
was Moses' rod; gone from the neighbouring vil- 
lage of Is Pigas was the fresco of St. John from 



216 Touring in 1600 

whose head, in the first week of each Lent, had 
blossomed a milk-white rose; gone was the trum- 
pet that sounded at the fall of Jericho and the 
horn of Abraham's ram. But the last two must 
be safe somewhere, for they are to be used by the 
summoning angel on Judgment Day. 

As a pilgrim, then, the tourist reached Constan- 
tinople only by the way. And setting out thence 
for Jerusalem, via Damascus, he might go by land 
in one of three ways, either by trading caravan, in 
which case he should contract with some one in it 
for all expenses and necessaries by the way, besides 
engaging a Janizary, necessary under every pos- 
sible condition, who is to report his passenger's 
safe arrival to an ambassador or some merchant 
residing at the point of departure; or he might 
accompany a governor on his way to take up his 
duties (and changes were very frequent), in 
which case the governor had better be required 
to swear by his head to see the pilgrim safely 
through ; or for the third, and quickest way, on the 
return journey, accompany the carriers of revenue 
to Constantinople. But it was far commoner to 
make a sea-journey of it, which meant taking ship 
to " Scanderoon" and thence by land, via Aleppo, 
to Damascus. Nobody ever went to Scanderoon 
except to get to Aleppo; sometimes not even then, 
for during this period the port of Aleppo was as 
often as not Tripoli. The objection to Scanderoon 
was its unhealthiness, lying, as it did, as Peter 



Mohammedan Europe 217 

Mundy says, " in a great marsh full of boggs, foggs, 
and froggs"; of the English who went there as ap- 
prentices scarcely five percent lived to go into busi- 
ness for themselves. Aleppo was worth seeing: a 
pleasant town with its approaches all gardens, like 
Damascus, and the medley of nations must have 
been marvellous to watch; a sign of its cosmopoli- 
tanism was that Christians were allowed to ride 
horses there, an unusual privilege in Mohamme- 
dan dominion; probably nowhere outside Venice 
were so many sects represented, whose churches 
were in what was called the new suburb ; two Ar- 
menian, a Greek, and a Catholic Maronite were 
actually side by side, with a Syrian Jacobite 
church just near. It is not out of place to add that 
at the Jews' synagogue there was not the usual 
division of sexes, but that the only separation was 
that one side was reserved for the families who had 
been long resident there, the other for strangers: 
because although the repulsion felt for the Jews 
was greater at this time than at present, the in- 
terest in them was likewise greater, and any in- 
formation concerning their customs was regarded 
by the tourist as matter for his readers — a sur- 
prising number of these tourists give eye-witness 
accounts of circumcisions of Jewish babies. 

To return to Aleppo; it was equally remarkable 
for its trade. Dealings to the extent of 40,000 
to 100,000 crowns were ordinary, and this implied 
frequency of caravans to take the pilgrim on to 



2 1 8 Touring in 1600 

Damascus. On the way he would pass the district 
in which Job was supposed to have lived, which 
may well have been so, says Moryson, for no spot 
possessed such conveniences for getting robbed, 
even of 100,000 head of cattle, nor any better 
suited to develop patience. 

It was here the pilgrim became acquainted 
with the Arabs. How far the latter were independ- 
ent of the Turks was left an unsettled question, 
but it is fairly certain that on many, perhaps 
most, of the occasions when a European travel- 
ler of the time relates an encounter with the 
Arabs, the latter were not the robbers he thought 
them but keepers of the roads demanding not 
more than treble what they were entitled to. But 
it is equally clear that hostilities were perpetual. 
In 1601 a caravan guide told an Englishman at 
one defile that he had never passed by there with- 
out seeing bodies of murdered men; and from 
Damascus to Jacob's bridge — so called because 
just by was the spot where Jacob wrestled with 
the Angel — the caravan travelled by night for 
fear of the Arabs and no talking was allowed with- 
out the captain's special permission. But there 
was much to divert the attention of the faithful 
from their trials. At Damascus was Ananias' 
house, and soon after starting an ill-informed 
tourist would be surprised to see all his fellow 
travellers fall on their knees for prayers : it would 
be the spot where the conversion of St. Paul took 



Mohammedan Europe 219 

place. Before reaching the Sea of Galilee they 
came upon a field with a little well in it, at which 
all dismounted for worship as well as for a drink; 
there had Joseph been hidden by his brethren. 
Between Cana and Mt. Tabor was a little chapel 
to call at, built on the spot where Christ had 
multiplied the loaves and fishes, and after this 
the road turned westwards to Nazareth and the 
church on the site where the Virgin Mary's house 
had stood before it had been spirited away to 
Loreto; two porphyry columns were standing on 
the places occupied respectively by the Archangel 
and by the Virgin at the moment of the Annuncia- 
tion. For those who were not Roman Catholics 
there was the actual house there to be identified 
on its original site, so far as it had been left intact 
by previous pilgrims; Lithgow, the only Western 
Christian in the caravan he travelled with, asserts 
that his companies carried away above five thou- 
sand pounds' weight of the house in remembrance. 
Then southward, joining the road from Tripoli, 
more frequented, but not by pilgrims, who chose 
this Damascus road as passing through Galilee. 
And so to Rama, where they may await such as 
journey by route 3 from Constantinople via Cairo. 
Reaching Alexandria it was found to be about 
the size of Paris; besides the ruins, the greatness 
of which was attested by the intolerable dust 
which was all that remained of much of the build- 
ing materials of the past. 



220 'Touring in 1600 

Leaving Alexandria for Cairo, it was a matter 
of course to go by river, passing an attractive 
town every four miles or so, a very pleasant jour- 
ney except when the Nile was low, which made it 
more practicable for the Arabs to attack. On 
landing at Bulak, the port, there would be asses 
ready, the wonderful asses of the East celebrated 
of old in Western Europe, as the canticle witnesses 
which used to be sung at Beauvais cathedral at 
the feast of the Circumcision when the ass enters 
in the procession. 6 

Orientis partibus 
Adventavit asinus 
Pulcher et fortissimus 
Sarcinis aptissimus 

Hez, Hez, sire asne, Hez! ! 

The asses of Bulak fortified tradition by carrying 
passengers into the city, unattended by any boy, 
and taking their way back as soon as the ride was 
over. 

The characteristics of Cairo which impressed 
themselves most on the seventeenth-century trav- 
eller were its size, and, notwithstanding its size, 
its populousness, so great that it was difficult to 
move for the press of people. Allowances must 
be made, however, for their standard regarding 
streets; a large proportion of the ten thousand 
streets were in reality passages built over, dark 
and dangerous to an extent which probably ex- 



Mohammedan Europe 221 

ists in few European slums nowadays. The num- 
ber ten thousand sounds suspicious as a statement 
of fact, but there was a certain check on it, inas- 
much as each "street" was shut at each end by a 
gate at night and each gate had a guardian as 
well as a lantern burning; and the number of 
guardians was twenty thousand besides the four 
thousand soldiers who patrolled inside the city 
at night. For the antiquities, there were still to 
be seen many houses bearing a chalice and two 
lighted candles, witnesses of Louis IX's captivity 
in Egypt and the tale of his leaving the sacrament 
as security for the payment of his ransom on his 
release; for the rest, knowledge was not in a very 
advanced state ; everything that was not credited 
to "Pharaoh" was put down to Joseph. 

The interest to the tourist centred equally in 
the excursions. It was but a few miles to Matarea 
— to use the Italian spelling, preferable with 
many of the names that occur, especially in this 
chapter, as a sign of the times — and no Roman 
Catholic omitted it, seeing that there stood the 
house where Our Lady dwelt for some years after 
her flight from Palestine; at Cairo itself was pre- 
served some of the water in which she washed her 
baby-clothes. Neither, naturally, was any one 
inclined to pass on without a visit to the Pyra- 
mids; no doubt Delia Valle's name is still to be 
found cut on the top of the Great Pyramid on the 
facet that looks towards Italy. He entered the 



222 Touring in 1600 

Great Pyramid, the only one into which entrance 
was effected at this date; but had no opportunity 
of saying anything regarding it out of the ordi- 
nary; it is when he moved on to what were known 
as the "Pyramids of the Mummies" that his 
account of his doings again becomes one of the 
most remarkable, as well as one of the best written, 
of research in Egypt. He made a halt at " Abusir," 
and then after entering one of these minor Pyra- 
mids, moved on to "Saccara," the centre for 
mummy-hunting, which formed the occupation of 
the boys of the village. On Delia Valle's arrival 
they had a stand-up fight for the privilege of tak- 
ing him home, and the next morning about fifty 
were at his door. A procession having been 
formed, all were set to work in different places 
probing for tombs, for Delia Valle was bent on 
examining such as had never been opened hith- 
erto. His trouble and expense were well rewarded, 
for the two mummies he brought away intact 
were pronounced at Cairo to be the most remark- 
able that any one there remembered seeing. They 
cost him three piastri — less than five pounds in 
our money at present values — each, and are now 
in Dresden Museum. It was rare for any to be seen 
intact, for hunting for mummies was not carried 
on for museums, but because of their supposed 
medicinal value, greatest, it was thought, in virgin- 
mummies; one of the rare qualities of Othello's 
handkerchief consisted in its having been 



AT MOUNT SINAI 

From Christopher Furer's " Itinerarium" (1566). 



Mohammedan Europe 223 

. . . dyed in mummy which the skilful 
Conserved of maiden's hearts . . . 

Mummies were therefore broken up as soon as 
found, and sold piecemeal; sometimes also to 
painters, who by means of them obtained certain 
shades of brown otherwise unattainable. There 
was, nevertheless, an Englishman, named John 
Sanderson, who brought one away intact, besides 
six hundred pounds of fragments to sell to London 
apothecaries, in spite of mummy being contra- 
band export from Egypt. 

A third, and the chief, excursion was to Sinai 
and the Red Sea. It is no exaggeration to say that 
for most it was a terrible experience; there were 
many who visited Mohammedan lands often and 
some who saw Jerusalem more than once, but not 
one went a second time to Sinai. No big caravans 
travelled that way, few were the merchants who 
traded to Suez; it meant, then, being subject to 
the pleasure of the Arabs. There privation was 
the best that could be looked for, they were de- 
pendent for their lives and the endurance of life 
on their own enforced liberality and the chance of 
forbearance from others ; and very thankful must 
they have been when they caught sight of the two 
great towers, since pulled down, which stood in 
the suburbs of Cairo for landmarks to those com- 
ing from Suez, although they might expect to re- 
ceive a welcome, as they had probably had a send- 
off, from the boys of Cairo in the shape of dirt, 



224 Touring in 1600 

bricks, and bad lemons. Two Germans were re- 
duced to such a state as to become subject to 
hallucinations. 

Especially strange did the journey seem to a 
Russian who passed by the Cairo route to Jeru- 
salem. So totally different a desert from those he 
knew, — neither forests nor vegetation, no people, 
no water; nothing but sand and stones, except for 
the Red Sea. And it happens that here, in partic- 
ular, does he show how far more second-hand was 
his knowledge of the Bible stories than was that 
of other Europeans. The function of the cloud 
which is said to have accompanied the Israelites 
by day on their flight was, to him, to hide them 
from pursuers, and at the Red Sea there were still 
visible to him the twelve ways that Moses had 
opened up for his people, one for each tribe, marked 
on the surface of the water by a deeper tint, and 
the prints of Pharaoh's chariot-wheels were as 
indelible as ever for him, whereas Christians from 
farther west ceased to see them soon after the 
beginning of the sixteenth century. Some facts 
were even more exclusively his own, as that Pha- 
raoh's soldiers were changed into fish after their 
drowning; and were to be known when caught 
by having human heads, men's teeth and noses, 
though their ears had grown to fins; nobody eats 
them. Pharaoh's horses were likewise fishified; 
hairy fish with skins as thick as your finger. 

It goes without saying that every scene from 



Mohammedan Europe 225 

Hebrew history was localised to a square foot; 
but there was, besides, a rock to be seen written 
over in characters that none could decipher, yet 
identified by tradition as the writing of Jeremiah 
the prophet done with his finger. This rock was 
near the monastery. Hither came the pilgrim, to 
find the gate barred, whether he had sent word 
of his approach or not; the monastery was sur- 
rounded as a rule by two or three hundred Arabs, 
howling day and night, and sometimes threaten- 
ing, for food; let down every now and then from 
a window high up. Once inside, there was the 
monks' well to see, the very same one at which 
Moses watered Jethro's sheep, and a chapel be- 
hind the choir built over the spot where had stood 
the burning bush that Moses saw; with Our Lady 
and her Baby standing in the middle thereof un- 
harmed, say the Russian pilgrims. Then to bed; 
and in the morning, after being wakened, maybe, 
by a monk calling his brethren to "offices" by 
striking spears of wood and iron with a stick, for 
bell they had none, a start would be made up 
what was assumed to be Mt. Horeb, at the foot of 
which, on the side nearest Cairo, lay the monas- 
tery. Not far from the top were four chapels, one 
dedicated to St. Elijah, at the back of which was 
the grotto where he hid from Jezebel, forty days, 
fasting. At the top was the rock behind which 
Moses lay while God passed, and, hard by, the 
church of the Holy Summit and a mosque — it 



226 "Touring in 1600 

was a pilgrimage place for Mohammedans, too. 
Then down again the farther side to the valley 
between Mts. Horeb and Sinai, to the hospice 
where pilgrims stayed the night. 

Before reaching Sinai, and after leaving it, 
these travellers are in the habit of making asser- 
tions so flatly contradictory that some of them 
will be hardly put to it on Judgment Day; but 
when at Sinai, there is only one opinion — to get 
to the top thereof was the most terrific struggle 
they had ever gone through. Only one account 
has the least suggestion of enjoyment in it, Delia 
Valle's ; and yet his ascent was made under worse 
conditions than any other's. 

It was one Christmas. In the night snow had 
fallen; the morning promised more snow. Only 
one monk was found to act as guide; but Delia 
Valle was ready, and his servants would go where- 
ever he chose to lead them; two Arabs were bribed 
into carrying food. So a start was made; Delia 
Valle in the pilgrim's tunic which he always wore 
in holy places, but tucked up high this time; and 
all with sticks cut from the tree whence Moses cut 
his rod. First went the monk, taking the rocks 
like a young deer; and he must have known his 
way well, for the stones which marked the way 
could not have been visible for snow. At first it 
was just wet; then they met the snow; higher up 
it came to mid-thigh; still higher, still deeper. 
Farther still, where in the best of weathers it was 



Mohammedan Europe 227 

a place for hands and knees, it was all frozen; more 
snow was falling and the wind terrific. The inter- 
preter gave himself up for dead, cursed the monk 
who encouraged the ascent, commended himself 
to God and St. Catherine, remembered his sins, 
and forswore meat on every Monday that he 
might live to see. However, they did reach the 
top, where, once upon a time, the angels laid St. 
Catherine's body for a while; and saw the hard 
stone which retained the imprint of her body 
where she had lain and of the angels' posteriors 
where they sat, one at each side of her head, and 
one at her feet. They prayed, eat, and forthwith 
started to descend, to reach the hospice that 
night. What with snow and mist they could often 
see but a foot or two before them, and their idea of 
descending under the conditions was to toboggan 
on their backs; the only risk being, he says, that 
of getting buried in snowdrifts, which was no real 
risk, because they never all got buried at the same 
time. However, once he found himself sitting on 
the edge of a precipice with his legs dangling; and 
yet, in the end, no casualties occurred except to 
one of Delia Valle's shoes, and he and his servants, 
after buying some of the little rings the monks 
provided by way of souvenirs, made of gold, of 
silver, and of bone, went back to Cairo to prepare 
for the other journey across the desert, to Gaza 
and Rama. 

Cairo to Gaza was twelve days' journey by 



228 Touring in 1600 

caravan, but an Arab could do it in four days. A 
merchant-pilgrim who had to rejoin his ship at 
Alexandria by a certain date in 1601 could find no 
way of return except under the escort of the Arabs 
to whom a friendly Moor introduced him. They 
travelled on dromedaries at first, but he changed 
to horseback towards the end to save his life from 
death by jolting. One evening his dromedary ran 
away, and the two Arabs pursued it out of sight, 
and there were the Moor and the merchant alone 
in the desert with night descending on them, not 
to mention other Arabs who had taken no oaths 
to respect their lives and pockets, but who event- 
ually postponed beheading them till their guides 
returned. 

An Arab guide meant safety from the chief 
danger of the desert, that of the Arab bands who 
laid in wait for every caravan and attacked small 
ones; in 161 1 a caravan of three hundred camels 
was carried off" bodily. The average number of 
persons in a caravan seems to have been about 
one thousand and the number of camels three for 
every four persons, besides the extra ones that 
would be required for merchandise; a camel car- 
ried two persons, and one camel luggage for four, 
— no small load, for each one had to provide for 
himself as if he was about to set up housekeeping. 
The camel had this advantage over the horse, that 
the latter and his fodder were more coveted by the 
Arab than the former; and it was all one whether 



Mohammedan Europe 229 

the Arab took horse and fodder or fodder only, 
for there was none to be bought and the horse 
would starve if left with the owner. The camels 
used for caravan purposes were not the small ones 
the Arabs were accustomed to, but the large ones, 
on which alone, at that time, at any rate, was it 
customary to travel in cradles, one cradle slung 
each side of the camel. They were comfortable, 
these cradles; comfortable enough to sleep in, 
hooded and lined to defend the traveller from sun 
and weather, with a secret pocket in the seat for 
valuables. The camels themselves were protected 
against the evil eye by charms written by der- 
vishes slung round their necks in leathern bags; 
and on special occasions they were painted orange 
from head to foot, like the Polish horses. 

Three of the halts were beside castles main- 
tained by the Turks; elsewhere there was always 
the chance of an Arab chief enquiring if there were 
Franks in the caravan and then inviting himself 
to dinner; after dinner he would want a present, 
would probably name his needs, and lucky was 
one particular tourist whose guest only asked for 
some sugar and a pair of shoes. That the Arab 
was born to command and the Frank to obey, 
was an axiom with Franks and caravan-leaders, 
except to Delia Valle, who always showed fight 
and always won ; it is to be hoped that none of the 
other tourist-pilgrims came to know later how 
much money they would have saved had they 



230 Touring in 1600 

known the effect of gunpowder, even minus the 
bullet, on an Arab. 

At Gaza the caravan would split. The tourist 
would accompany those who were for Damascus, 
whose way lay through Rama, where, as already 
mentioned, all pilgrim ways met. Then to Jeru- 
salem. At the gate the pilgrim's weapons were 
taken from him and his name registered in a 
book, to assure that his tribute should not be 
overlooked. Then the resident representative 
of his sect took charge of him; if he was a Frank 
he went to the Roman Catholic monastery of San 
Salvatore, whether Protestant or not. There was 
one Calvinist at this time who preferred to deal 
direct with the Turks rather than endanger his 
soul; but this meant money to the monks and he 
found himself in prison, from which he was only 
released by influence. The fact was that none of 
the Protestant rulers contributed to the upkeep 
of any foundation at Jerusalem and all Western 
Europeans were consequently classed together as 
in days gone by. At the monastery he would be 
fairly certain to make the acquaintance of Gio- 
vanni Battista, the monastery guide, for by 1612 
he had filled that post for twenty-five years; and 
he it was from whom pilgrims derived most of 
their information during their stay — in Italian; 
if their knowledge of Italian was hazy, it probably 
added one or two marvels to those he meant to 
tell them. And, indeed, this may be said of most 



Mohammedan Europe 231 

of these tourists on most of their journeys; much 
of the information they retail, in their own books 
and in this, they acquired by word of mouth in a 
language they only half understood. 

Of Jerusalem as a town they say that the walls 
were the best part of the building; that there were 
three Christians living there to every Turk; that 
the Christians dwelled there for devotion and the 
Turks for the income derived from the Christians, 
and that otherwise it would have been wholly 
deserted. Partially deserted it actually was, since 
for the scarcity of human beings in its streets it is 
compared to Padua, the emptiest city in Europe, 
by one Englishman. All the trades driven there 
were elementary ones, shoemakers, cooks, smiths, 
tailors ; and Moryson, on being seen walking about 
with gloves and a shirt, was taken for a prince in 
spite of his being poorly dressed otherwise; al- 
though that did not prevent the natives egging on 
their children to leap on to his back from upper 
stories and snatch things from him. 

But just consider the sights in these streets! 
Passing over the localisations of New Testament 
incidents (such as where the Apostles composed 
the Creed and Christ the Lord's prayer) so exact 
and frequent that one must have had to walk 
slowly to avoid missing them when the guide 
pointed them out, there were besides the houses 
of Annas, Zebedee, Caiaphas, Veronica, Dives, 
Mary Magdalen, Uriah the Hittite, Pilate, where 



23 2 "Touring in 1600 

nightly were heard noises and whippings and sighs, 
and of the school which Our Lady attended; the 
orchard where Bathsheba bathed and the terrace 
from which David beheld her; the fountain where 
Our Lady used to wash her baby-clothes; the 
stone on which the cock stood to crow at St. 
Peter's downfall, and another which had been the 
seat of the angel who told the Marys of Christ's 
resurrection, etc., etc. 

These were every-day matters. To see Jerusa- 
lem at its best one had to go at Easter, when the 
concourse of pilgrims was greatest for two reasons : 
first, the only excursion to Jordan took place; 
secondly, the descent of the Holy Fire from hea- 
ven into the church of the Holy Sepulchre. The 
incidents of the season are described in detail by 
George Sandys, Lithgow, Coryat and Delia Valle, 
who were there at Easter in the years 1611, 161 2, 
1614, and 1616 respectively. On Palm Sunday 
the warden of the monastery set out for Beth- 
phage in the afternoon and returned riding on an 
ass, the people shouting "Hosanna, etc.," and 
strewing the way with boughs and garments. 
When Lithgow was there they made too much 
noise to please the Turks and therefore returned 
black with bruises and somewhat bloody, the 
warden not excepted. In the evening the warden 
had recovered far enough to give an address to 
the Frank pilgrims, entreating the Protestants 
to refrain from reviling what they did not agree 



Mohammedan Europe 233 

with, and concluding with the advice that three 
things were preeminently needful for a Jerusalem 
pilgrim; Faith (to believe what was told him), 
Patience (with the Turks), and Money. 

On Maundy Thursday came the ceremony of 
washing the pilgrims' feet by the warden, and 
great was his disgust if he found that he had 
washed and kissed the feet of a Protestant. Some 
spent the next three nights in the church of the 
Holy Sepulchre, some only Easter Eve; a survival 
of the pre-Christian idea of the healing influence 
of passing a night in a temple. 6 Those who could 
not afford, or borrow, the heavy entrance-fee, 
never entered but stood outside and wept, or 
looked through the round hole in the door through 
which food was passed. Inside, it made all the 
difference whether or no the Oriental Palm Sun- 
day or Easter Day fell on the Frank Easter. 
If so, the Frank would find the number in the 
church of the Holy Sepulchre anything between 
one and two thousand, many belonging to nations 
he had never heard of, all frantic with excitement, 
dancing, leaping, and lamenting by torchlight, in 
garments that he had never dreamt of, to the 
sound of kettle-drums and horns and other in- 
struments as strange to him as their languages 
and manner of singing; all combining, with their 
flags and banners, in a general cumulative effect 
of inexpressible weirdness, without a single touch 
to bring it into relation with ordinary life, except 



234 Touring in 1600 



the Turks bringing to reason with sticks those 
who were really too outrageous even for the occa- 
sion. And so the pilgrims spent the three nights, 
on the floor, in as utter disregard of decency 
and sanitation, and sometimes of morality, as of 
silence. 

The descent of the Holy Fire was no more than 
an interesting sight to the European tourist; 
Roman Catholic and Protestant alike expressed 
disbelief in its actuality as openly as the Turk. 

On Easter Monday the monks journeyed to 
Emmaus, passing the house of Simeon and the 
spot where David slew Goliath, returning by 
another road past the valley where Joshua 
commanded the staying still of the sun, and the 
house of Samuel. It was on the Tuesday preced- 
ing the Oriental Easter that the great excursion 
of the year took place, to Jordan; the only one in 
the year because the danger from the Arabs was 
considered prohibitive unless an escort of Turkish 
soldiers accompanied the pilgrims, so strong that 
only the Easter concourse could pay them. It 
was more than a day's journey, so Tuesday night 
was spent in the open, starting again however 
before dawn at the pace set by the escort's horses; 
of the poorer pilgrims who could not afford a 
mount, many died either from exhaustion or from 
fear. So says Delia Valle, and it is confirmed by 
Lithgow; the latter, who walked, sometimes was 
up to his middle in sand, and "true it is, in all my 



Mohammedan Europe 235 

travels, I was never so sore fatigued, nor more 
fearfully endangered than that night." At dawn 
they arrived where Christ had been baptised, to 
see the medley of nationalities, all distinct from 
each other in some striking detail or other, once 
more in the highest state of excitement; some 
drinking, some being baptised by friends, some 
dipping their clothes, some renouncing clothes 
altogether, scores, perhaps hundreds, of men and 
women stark naked, there in the chilly spring 
morning, douching themselves till their teeth 
chattered and their bodies turned blue, while 
others who came to pray remained to laugh. 

On the way back some diverged to visit Mt. 
Quarantana, the scene of the forty days' fast; 
very few ascended it. The way up was a narrow 
path along precipices; broken by forty-five steps, 
each from five to ten feet high, where there was 
little foothold and slipping meant death. This 
ended at the little cave where Christ was tempted 
by the Devil; the way thence to the summit, from 
which Christ had surveyed the kingdoms of the 
world, was not attempted by any one: Lithgow 
says he reached the top but proves that he did 
not; and Delia Valle says that the only means of 
reaching it was that used by Christ, being carried 
up by the Devil. 

Easter, too, gave a good opportunity for a visit 
to Hebron, for the largest caravan went thither at 
that time also. But this was as much a Moham- 



23 6 Touring in 1600 

medan pilgrimage as Christian, and Abraham's 
house, another of the remarkably well-preserved 
buildings of Palestine, was shut against Christians 
and Jews. Of these latter there were many who 
journeyed to the Holy Land; how many cannot 
be guessed, but they certainly outnumbered the 
Christians of the West, and equally certainly were 
too many to be omitted from a record of Europe- 
ans then, though the only piece of direct evidence 
at hand is from the itinerary of one Samuel Jem- 
sel 7 with whom, in 1641, one hundred sailed in one 
ship of the regular fleet from Constantinople to 
Egypt, some bound for Jerusalem, some for Safed. 
They come into notice chiefly when a caravan is 
on the move on their Sabbath, when they remain 
behind and make up the lost ground as best they 
can. 

From other pilgrims they differed in this; the 
Christian was leaving home, the Jew was going 
home. When they reached Palestine, besides, 
some of the spots they visited were famous among 
Christians; but mostly they were not. In the best 
Jewish guide-book in use in 1600, are mentioned one 
hundred and sixty-eight of their famous ancestors 
whose tombs were localised. If a Christian visited 
Abraham's, his duty to the Old Testament was 
done with; and even then he invariably omitted 
to observe the stone on which the patriarch sat 
when he was circumcised. And as for the tomb 
of Adam and Eve, and of Jacob and Leah, and 



Mohammedan Europe 237 

the prophet Hosea (may his memory be blessed), 
and of Isaiah (may Salvation be his), and of 
Rachel (with whom be peace), and of the Rabbi 
Jeremiah who was buried upright, and, at Ras- 
ben-Amis, of the wife of Moses our master, and 
of the wife of the high-priest Aaron, and, on Mt. 
Ephraim, of Joshua the son of Nun and of Caleb 
the son of Jephunneh (may God, in his mercy, be 
mindful of them and of all other righteous men) — 
why, of all these the Ishmaelites knew nothing, nor 
even that at Rama was to be seen the spot where 
the Messiah shall appear, nor that there should 
be rending of garments when Jerusalem is first 
seen and again on reaching the place where once 
stood the Temple, now, for our sins, destroyed. 

Outside Palestine, too, was much that the un- 
circumcised knew not of. He passed through 
Cairo without hearing of the copy of the law of 
Moses, written by the hand of Esdras the scribe; 
though, indeed, no man might see it, not even, 
incredible as it may sound, if he offered the keeper 
thereof silver (partly because the holy volume 
had by now been stolen, and lost, with the thief, 
at sea). And Damascus Hebrew and Frank might 
equally remember as the city where fresh fruit 
was never lacking, but only the former remem- 
bered that hard by Esdras himself lay buried, any 
more than the merchant who reached Baghdad 
heard that there rested Ananias, Mizael, and 
Azarias, and also, with the river flowing over his 



23 8 Touring in 1600 

head, Daniel, of glorious memory, — unless the 
merchant wished to catch some of the great fish 
which swam thereabouts, for fishing was pro- 
hibited at that spot lest harm might befall the 
greatest fish of all, Zelach by name, who had 
abided there since Daniel's own time and was fed 
from the royal table. 

And if any of the twentieth-century uncircum- 
cised hesitate to believe that so much could be 
satisfactorily identified, the twentieth-century He- 
brew may answer that there are other tests of 
identification than those of the "research" that 
has achieved such wonders at Stratford-on-Avon 
and that tradition can be traced back, unvarying 
even in trifles, for centuries. 

He might go on to point out that Christian 
tradition might well be more stable. It is curious 
how much that is mentioned by fifteenth-century 
Christians is habitually omitted by those who 
came after. That the taking of Rhodes by the 
Turks should cause the disappearance of the 
basin in which Christ washed his apostles' feet is 
intelligible; but why, e. g., should the table dis- 
appear from Bethany at which the disciples were 
sitting when the Holy Ghost descended? And 
why should it have dropped out of remembrance 
that the torrent of Cedron had been bridged with 
stone by St. Helen to replace the wooden one 
from which the wood for the Cross had been taken 
and over which the Queen of Sheba had refused 



ARMS OF A JERUSALEM PILGRIM 

Arms of Sebastien Werro, cure of Fribourg, Switzerland, surmounted 
by the arms of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, showing that 
he received that knighthood on the occasion of his pilgrimage thither, 
1581. The title-page of the account of his journey written by him- 
self (Bibl. de la SociHe Economique de Fribourg). 




(TIN KhAhl VM 

Pun jiwrufeltiw 

-t1«^-^t- •tJc^V^wv Jvivrt, *^«diii tin.'*** 



?r 3~ 



'4. 






1^81 










^<r/ 



Mohammedan Europe 239 

to walk, saying in a spirit of prophecy, that the 
Saviour of the world was to die on it? It seems as 
though there had occurred a diminishment of de- 
votion resulting in the concentration of what 
devotion remained on fewer objects; or else a 
widening of interests diverting the attention from 
minor objects. Sometimes, of course, transference 
took place; which may, or may not, account for 
one traveller being shown the pillar of salt which 
had once been Lot's wife at a monastery near 
Trapani in Sicily in 1639, whereas in 1613 Coryat 
was told that she existed on the farther side of 
"Lake Asphaltitis with her child in her arms and 
a pretty dog, also in salt, by her." Still, no doubt 
Giovanni Battista and the warden did their best, 
and the latter was willing, in addition, to confer 
knighthood of the Holy Sepulchre on all and sun- 
dry, with no questions asked as to lineage, not 
even of a Dutchman in the grocery business; and 
at least there was the certificate of the pilgrim's 
visit to Jerusalem to be received — and paid for. 

And now the tourist's last and longest journey 
has been told; he is at home safe, leaving us with 
nothing fresh to tell except the incidentals of his 
journeyings, and leaving us, one tourist, at least, 
with his blessing: "In the meantime I leave thee, 
gentle reader, travelling towards the heavenly 
Jerusalem, where God grant at length we may all 
arrive, Jesus Christ being our pilot and Janizary 
to conduct us thereunto." 



CHAPTER VI 

INNS 

Servus. . . . Pero con licentia, quando Sed bona venia, 

quierese ir vuessa merced? quando vult re- 

cedere T. D.? 
Viator. Mafiana, plaziendo a Dios, en Cras, si Deopla- 

caso que pueda madrugar cet, si possim dilu- 

culo surgere. 
Servus. Paraque no se queda aqui aun Quare non ma- 

algunos dias? net hie adhuc per 

aliquot dies? 
Viator. El huesped y el pesce en tres Hospes et piscis 

dias hiede post triduum foe- 

tent. 
Muller, "Linguae Hispanicse Institutio," 1630. 

IT is a most unsatisfactory thing — reading 
about what you would like to see; but if 
seeing sixteenth-century Europe implied 
spending the nights in sixteenth-century inns 
there is much to be said for preferring the experi- 
ence in print only. Luxury of a kind certainly was 
to be had. At the "Vasa d'Oro" at Rome were 
gorgeous beds, hung with silk and cloth of gold, 
worth four to five hundred crowns each; at the 
"Ecu" at Chalons silken bedding, too; and Ger- 
many occasionally provided sheets trimmed with 
lace four-fingers '-breadth wide in panelled rooms, 
while by 1652 Amsterdam possessed a hotel reck- 
oned the best in Europe, every room in which was 



Inns 



241 



floored with black and white marble and hung 
with pictures, with one room containing an organ 
and decorated with gilded leather in place of 
tapestries. But these superfluities did not imply- 
that a comfortable medium was easily found. In 
any case, accommodation divided itself into bed- 
room and dining-room; of anything approaching 
a sitting-room there is rarely a word. The chief 
exception to this is the five or six halls, decorated 
and furnished like those of a rich gentleman, at 
the inn outside Sinigaglia. This was the finest 
hotel in Italy when built, shortly before 1578, by 
the Duke of Urbino, who allowed no other there. 
Its forty bedrooms, with no more than two beds 
in each, all opened on to one long gallery by 
separate doors. 1 

The Italian host the traveller would often see 
before the inn came in sight; sometimes the latter 
would have touts as far away as seven or eight 
leagues to buttonhole foreigners, carry their lug- 
gage, promise anything and behave with the ut- 
most servility — till the morning of departure. 
But with all this to expect them to provide clean 
sheets was expecting too much, and as the nation 
was grievously afflicted with the itch, it was de- 
sirable for the visitor to carry his own bedding. 
In many cases, too, we find the tourist sleeping 
on a table in his clothes to avoid the dirtiness of 
the bed, or the vermin. Still, in Italy, you shared 
your bed with these permanent occupants only, 



242 Touring in 1600 

as a rule; in Spain you were sure to do so; one man, 
one bed, was the custom there — a result of the 
enforcement of the penalty of burning alive for 
sodomy. In Germany the custom was just the 
reverse; in fact, if the tourist did not find a com- 
panion for himself, the host chose for him, and his 
bedfellow might be a gentleman, or he might be 
a carter; all that could safely be prophesied about 
him was that he would be drunk when he came to 
bed. The bed would be one of several in a room; 
the covering a quilt, warm enough to be too warm 
for summer, and narrow enough to leave one side 
of each person exposed in winter. This is suppos- 
ing there were beds : in northern Germany rest for 
the night would be on a bench in a "stove," as 
they called the room, because the stove was so 
invariably part of the furniture that the words 
"room" and "stove" became synonymous. Win- 
dows were never opened at night, to retain the 
heat in the room ; all the travellers lay there, men 
and women, gentlemen and "rammish clowns," 
as near the stove as they could manage. The 
heat was such that the effect on one unaccustomed 
to it was "as if a snake was twining about his 
legs." Further, if several met together, says a 
Frenchman, one might as well try to sleep in a 
market-place on market-day. In upper Germany, 
the bedrooms were separate, without fires or the 
means of making one, and the change from the 
one temperature to the other was very trying. 



Inns 243 

As many beds were put in a room as the room 
would hold; fairly clean ones, however, as the 
Germans treated them with some disinfectant. 
In Saxony there were no beds, no benches, no 
stove, even. All lay in the straw among the cows, 
the chief disadvantage of which was that your 
pillow was liable to be eaten in the night. So in 
Poland, too, where it meant a cold and dangerous 
night, in the country parts, at least, for any one 
who did not adapt himself to the custom of the 
country by using the long coat lined with wolf- 
skins which served the Pole as cloak by day and 
bedding by night. 

As a relief from the general statements, a par- 
ticular instance may be quoted to exemplify a 
night by the way in Poland. The sleeping-room 
struck the writer as something between a stable 
and a subterranean furnace. Six soldiers lay on 
the ground as if dead; the peasant-tenant, his 
wife, children, and servants, lay on benches round 
the walls, with coverings of straw and feathers; in 
one corner slept a Calvinist, a baron's secretary; 
in another, on the peasant's straw pallet, an am- 
bassador's chaplain, a Roman Catholic; and be- 
tween the two, to save each, it seemed, from the 
heels of the other, was lying a huge Tartar, a cap- 
tain in the Polish army, who had made up a bed of 
hay for himself. About the room were dogs, geese, 
pigs, fowls; while the corner by the oven was con- 
ceded to a woman who had just given birth to a 



244 Touring in 1600 

child. The baby cried, the mother moaned, the 
tired servants and soldiers snored; and early in the 
morning the writer rose from the shelf he was shar- 
ing with some leggings, spurs, and muskets, and 
escaped. 2 

Speaking generally, there were no beds to be 
found in the North. In Muscovy everything had 
to be carried along; without a hatchet, tinder- 
box, and kettle there was no hot food for the 
wayfarer till he reached a monastery or a town, 
much less shelter; unless by chance he came across 
somebody's one-story cabin which would have no 
outlet for the smoke except the door, and accom- 
modation below the level of the average stable, 
one room shared between the family, visitors, 
and live-stock. When Sir Jerome Horsey was at 
Arensberg, in the island of Oesel, near the gulf of 
Riga, in 1580, snakes crept about bed and table 
and the hens came and pecked at them in the 
flour and the milk. 

Crossing over to Sweden the absence of inns 
was equally noticeable, but no disadvantage, for 
one of the conditions on which the parson held his 
living was that of showing hospitality to those in 
need of it. In Denmark, too, while taverns ex- 
isted for supplying victuals, the wayfarer was de- 
pendent on the citizen for lodging, again not to 
his loss; he was sure of decent food, a clean bed, 
and a welcome. Foreigners in England are sin- 
gularly reticent about the inns, except for revil- 



Inns 245 

ing Gravesend for swindling; which may, perhaps, 
be taken as confirming Moryson's opinion that 
the English inn was the best in Europe. As to 
Ireland, there is the usual diversity of opinion; 
the absence of inns is accounted for by the tradi- 
tional idea that the possession of an inn was a 
disgrace to a town, a slur on the hospitality of its 
inhabitants; yet the hospitality itself was most 
uncertain, since the natives were not in a position 
to believe in the neutrality of a visitor. 

The personnel question, of course, is one that has 
to be allowed for throughout. It was in France 
that this method of discounting dissatisfaction 
was most in use, but it is in a dialogue printed in 
the Low Countries, a conversational guide for 
travellers in seven languages, that the following 
(an excerpt from the English version) occurs: 3 

"My she-friend, is the bed made? is it good?" 

"Yea, sir; it is a good feather-bed; the sheets be 
very clean. " 

" Pull off my hosen and warm my bed ; draw the 

curtains and pin them with a pin. My she-friend, 

kiss me once and I shall sleep the better. . . . 

I thank you, fair maiden." 

The German host was too apt to think that a 
heavy meal and honesty were all that could be 
expected from him. The honesty was indeed re- 
markable; more than one stranger was astonished 
by the recovery of property mislaid; sent after 
him, sometimes, before he had discovered his loss 



246 'Touring in 1600 

and no reward taken; but it was paid for dearly 
indirectly through the insolence born of virtue 
in a class that is naturally below the Ten-Com- 
mandment standard. The customer was made to 
feel that the favour was to, not from, him. An 
exception to this is the experience of Van Buchell, 
who found German hosts sending hot water up to 
a traveller's bedroom, if it was noticed he was 
tired, with herbs in the water, such as camomile, 
for strengthening the feet; and this even at Frank- 
furt a/M. in Fair-time as well as elsewhere. But 
there was no such thing as hastening on, or de- 
laying, a meal-time, or dissatisfaction with the 
food ; the bill must be paid without question, not 
a farthing abated. 

And generally, indeed, the help of the law did 
not seem to avail against the innkeeper. Tourists 
speak of successful appeals to the law on other 
points and curse the inns without ceasing, but a 
successful tourist's lawsuit against his host re- 
mains to be found. In Tyrol, in fact, the plaintiff 
would find the defendant not only on, but con- 
trolling, the bench; and in Spain most innkeepers 
were officers of the " Santa Hermandad," a "Holy 
Brotherhood" whose forgotten ideal and raison 
d'etre was that of acting as country police, with 
the result that the complainant would probably 
be arrested at the next stopping-place on some 
trumped-up charge. Neither was the local author- 
ity of assistance so far as prices were concerned in 



Inns 247 

spite of the latter being fixed by it and posted up; 
because the local authority was open to bribery, 
and the innkeeper had known that as long as he 
had been in business. In short, when the bill came 
to one hundred per cent too much in Spain, the 
cheapest way was to pay it. 

Of all the ill-feeling that the tourists harboured 
against Spain, the bitterest was on account of the 
inns; from the earliest, Andrew Boorde, who says 
"hogs shall be under your feet at the table, and 
lice in your beds," and another who relates how 
he preferred to hire three Moors to hold him in 
their arms while he slept. Those who come mid- 
way through the period tell the same tale; at Gall- 
eretta, on the border of Castile, a German finds the 
stable, the bedroom, the kitchen, the dining-room, 
the pigsty, one and the same room, and a Papal 
envoy sleeps on straw one snowy night without a 
fire. The latest writes that the sight of the inns 
was more than enough. There was but one way to 
reconcile one's self to the wayside inn of Spain; 
and that was — trying those of Portugal. 

Over all these inns the Turkish " khan" had this 
advantage, that there was no host. A " khan" was 
a building which some compare to a barn, and one 
to a tennis-court, with a platform running round 
inside the walls about four feet broad and usually 
three to four feet high, but sometimes ten. At in- 
tervals of about eight feet were chimneys. The 
platform was for the travellers; the inner space for 



248 Touring in 1600 

their beasts; the chimneys for each party to cook 
food at. That was the normal form, seeming to an 
uninstructed traveller just a stable, in which idea 
he would be confirmed by the scents in the early 
morning. The average Christian found that the 
noises and the lights prevented sleep, but the Turk 
carried a rug to sleep on, used his saddle as a 
pillow and his great rain-cloak as a covering and 
found it comfortable enough till daybreak, when 
he thought it suitable to get up, greatly to the dis- 
gust of the Christians present. Or if the moon was 
very bright, he might arise earlier by mistake; for 
he carried no watch, nor believed one when he saw 
it. Even in the ordinary " khan " there was often a 
room over the door to which the traveller might 
retire if he chose, but the Turk seldom used this, 
preferring to keep an eye on his beasts; and the 
Frank consequently might remain unaware that 
there existed any escape from the camels. Most 
" khans," built of hewn stone roofed with lead, 
would accommodate from eighty beasts to one 
hundred and fifty; and practically always had 
their fountains for the washings prescribed by the 
Turks' religion : but as time went on, far more mag- 
nificent places arose, with covered ways leading to 
mosques across the road, and many rooms, capable 
of holding nearly one thousand travellers and 
their belongings. The finest lay along the road 
leading from Constantinople to Christendom. 
The fact that "khan" is indiscriminately applied 



Inns 249 

to all by most Franks is evidence that they were 
not on speaking terms with the natives, to whom 
many were known as "Imaret," those, that is, 
which provided food free. All lodgings were a 
form of good works among the richer Turks, a 
practical attempt to disarm the customary sus- 
picions of the Grand Signor or the well-justified 
wrath of Allah; and free food was an extension of 
this appeal. The food was barley porridge mostly, 
or of some other grain, with meat in it; and bread, 
and sometimes honey; nor was there any idea of 
poverty associated with taking it; Jew and viceroy 
alike were recipients. Of all the marvellous pro- 
vision for travellers, and even for the care of stray 
animals, in Constantinople, free food, free lodging, 
free medical attendance for men of all creeds, as 
unfolded in detail by the Turk traveller, Awliyai 
Efendi, there is no need to dwell on, since the 
Frank knew of its existence but rarely and dimly, 
by hearsay only, for he would be lodging over the 
water at Pera with his nation's ambassador. 

The Turk himself never travelled alone. Had 
he done so, he would have found the non-exist- 
ence of the innkeeper troublesome. Near Con- 
stantinople there was a "khan" for every stage 
of every journey; but not so farther away; from 
Aleppo to Damascus was nine days' journey and 
only five "khans" on the way. But accompany- 
ing the caravan, he was taken care of; a quad- 
rangle was formed, the travellers inside, among 



250 Touring in 1600 

the waggons; the lines of the square formed by the 
beasts, their heads tethered inward; and at night- 
time was an outer line of fires ; by the side of the 
fires, the watch; outside the fires, the patrol, until 
the three loud strokes on the drum which gave the 
signal for starting. 

For out-of-door lodging, "at the sign of the 
Moon," as their phrase ran, there was much to be 
said; but then, how about food? Their guns were 
short in range; inaccurate within their range; and 
how much ran about that they might not touch on 
pain of death. The deer in Germany knew their 
immunity so well that they would lie in the road 
and have to be persuaded to leave room for the 
waggon; and to keep your hand from picking and 
stealing was an effective commandment where 
an economical duke of Florence lived who had 
planted those mulberry trees by the wayside and 
looked for profits. And so we return to the inns, 
leaving the bedroom to consider the fare. 

But first — how to find them ? By the sign when 
there was one; but supposing there was none? In 
most parts of Germany inns were distinguished 
solely by the coats of arms which visitors had 
put up to commemorate their progresses. The 
best inns could show, inside and out, as many as 
three hundred or more. For the signs themselves, 
it may be interesting to know what were the 
commonest signs and what were the exceptions. 
Out of a total of three hundred and fifty-eight 



Inns 251 

different inns which these travellers mention by 
their signs, the "Crown" occurs most frequently 
(thirty-two times), mainly as a result of "Ecu de 
France " being so favourite a name in France. 
"White Horses" and "Golden Lions" seem to 
have been about as popular then as now; where 
changes have taken place is rather in connection 
with ecclesiastical signs. The "Cross" occurs 
twenty-two times, eleven of which are "White"; 
the " Three Kings " (fourteen) and the " Red Hat " 
or its equivalents, the "Cardinal's Hat" or the 
"Cardinal" (seven), are other examples; but of 
saints there are no more than twenty-five alto- 
gether, including five of " Our Lady." Barbara 
(three), Magdalen, Christopher, and John are the 
only other names that are used more than once. 
Among those who have but one of the three hun- 
dred and fifty-eight inns dedicated to him or her, is 
St. Martha, the patroness of those who stay at inns. 
The only form that is found coming into fashion 
is that of "Town of " a fashion set, appar- 
ently, by Paris during the first quarter of the sev- 
enteenth century, to establish a special clientele: 
the " Ville de Brissac," there, for instance, catered 
for Protestants, the "Ville de Hambourg" for 
Germans. But there existed at many towns inns 
which specialized in this way under ordinary 
names. At Liibeck were English inns; at Calais 
the "Petit St. Jean" was a meeting-place for 
Scotchmen; and Germans in Italy were directed 



252 Touring in 1600 

to the "White Lion" and "Black Eagle "at Venice, 
the "Two Swords" at Rome, and the "Black 
Eagle" at Naples. Signs which occur but once 
and have something picturesque about them are 
the " Scarlet Siren " (" Serena Ostriata ") at Venice, 
the "Mille Moyens" at Antwerp, the "Good 
Friend " at Leghorn, the "Fish Cart "of Cologne, 
the "Bacchus" at Cracow, the "Nereids" at 
Noyon; Paris had a " Four Winds " and a "Pine- 
apple," Boulogne a " Tin Pot." Neither should 
"St. Francois de la Grande Barbe" at Agen be 
forgotten, if only on account of the host, who 
never slept there; every night he was taken away 
to prison for debt, says the Pole Golnitz. It is 
curious, too, that in only one case out of so many 
should a name come up with any reference to the 
heroes of romance ("Les Quatre Fils d'Aymon"), 
which suggests that the acquaintance with them 
was less common among the lower classes than is 
generally supposed. 

Next, since in nine cases out of ten a sign-board 
spells a drink, consider drinks. Spaniards and 
Turks drank water; the rest of Europe thought it 
unhealthy; in fact, as often as not cleaned their 
teeth with wine. Still drinking-fountains were 
not unknown; at Paris Zinzerling sampled sixteen. 
The consumption of cider, wines, and light beer, 
and heavy beer seems to have been localized with 
no material difference from to-day. The Turks 
alone had coffee and sherbet; and only the Span- 



Inns 253 

iards chocolate, drinking which, however, was no 
more than a recently introduced fashion for its 
supposed medicinal qualities ; it was only to be had 
where the most expensive kind of business was 
done. Among spirits, Irish was reckoned the best 
whiskey, but was seldom found outside Ireland, 
where it was known as the "King of Spain's 
Daughter." In Muscovy aqua-vitae was the fa- 
vourite drink; every meal began and ended with 
it; but for quantity consumed hydromel came 
first, with mead second. Besides being prepared 
plain, hydromel was often to be had made with 
water in which cherries, strawberries, mulberries 
or raspberries had been soaked for twenty-four 
hours or more; if aqua-vitae had been substi- 
tuted for water with the raspberries, the taste is 
recommended as marvellous. 

For wines, each one was practically confined to 
the district that grew it. The export trade seems 
to have been for private buyers, little to inns with 
the exceptions of Muscovy, where Spanish wine 
was well known, of Poland (Spanish and Levant) 
and of Venetian territory, in the various parts of 
which a considerable variety of wines were grown 
and between which there had grown up the habit 
of interchange of products which extended to inn- 
custom. To be deducted from this is the fact 
that Greek wine was the name of a kind culti- 
vated as much, perhaps more, outside Greece 
than within it. 



254 "Touring in 1600 



As to the relative quality of sixteenth-century 
wines there are many independent opinions to be 
had, and they all agree — Italy was first in that, 
too. Among Italian wines, preeminent was the 
Lagrime di Christo ("tears of Christ"), concern- 
ing which a Dutchman was heard to lament 
greatly that Christ had not wept in his country; 
what has just been said concerning the localiza- 
tion of wines should be modified with regard to 
this kind which was to be found in many Italian 
inns outside its native Liguria. Second may be 
counted Monteflascone, with the help, maybe, 
of its own particular anecdote, which illustrates 
the second-hand character of travellers' inform- 
ation, since no two versions of the epitaph agree, 
and yet most accounts read as if the traveller had 
read the original. The tale is of a bishop who 
loved wine, was going to Rome, and had a serv- 
ant whose taste was to be trusted. The bishop 
sent him in advance to test the wine at each inn 
and chalk the door-post with "Est" where the 
wine was good. When the servant arrived at 
Monteflascone he chalked "Est, Est, Est"; and 
so thought the bishop, for he drank till he died. 
And the servant wrote his epitaph. 

" ' Est, Est, Est; ' propter nimium Est 
Dominus meus mortuus est." 

Drunkenness was infinitely more common than 
to-day, especially in Germany. Laws had, it is 




I EHEV QVAbi VACVA FOCVS KST MACIL£NT« IN '/StoK] 



TWO GERMAN KITCHENS 

The 'fat' and the 'lean.' Plates 58 and 63 of J . '/'. de Bry's "Pro- 
scenium Vita Humana-'" (" Emblemata Stzcitlaria"). From the copy 
of the first edition (i"50i5) in the Bodleian Library at Ox) 




VT VENTRT BENE SIT PRAESENTEM QVAERE CVLINAM 



Inns 255 

true, been passed, more stringent, during the past 
century, a result of the victories of the teetotal 
Turks; but there was no one to enforce them. 
Every German's conversation was punctuated 
with "I drink to you" "as regularly as every 
psalm ends in a 'Gloria,'" says Moryson, and 
among a number of princes whom he saw at a 
funeral feast, not one was sober. He queries — 
what would they have done at a wedding? adding 
that during the year and a half he spent there, 
attending churches regularly, he never heard a 
clergyman say a word against intemperance. The 
national reputation abroad was to match; even, 
when once some Germans halted at a village in 
Spain, there was a riot; the peasants were really 
afraid, beforehand, that the price of wine would 
go up! 

Turning to meals, we find breakfast less of an 
established custom than it is at present. In 
France it was more, in Germany less, usual than 
elsewhere. In fact, in Germany it was not taken 
at the inn, but bought in the shape of "brannt- 
wein" and gingerbread at shops, existing partly 
for that purpose, at the town gates. French 
customs generally were more considerate towards 
the new-comer; something to go on with would 
often be brought him as he dismounted and water 
for a wash, just as in Flanders a bright-faced girl 
would frequently be ready at the door with beer 
or wine, very ready, too, to drink at his expense 



256 Touring in 1600 

and to start first; whereas elsewhere he would be 
expected to wait till dinner as dusty, inside and 
outside, as he came in. A French breakfast con- 
sisted of a glass of wine and just a mouthful of 
bread; sometimes, as in Normandy, buttered 
toast, sometimes even meat was kept ready; but 
the sole instance of a traveller finding himself ex- 
pected to eat a substantial meal first thing in the 
morning was at the inn of St. Sebastian, " the best 
inn," says Golnitz, "on the Paris-Lyons road," 
kept by a mother and two daughters. The Eng- 
lish custom of its being taken for granted that the 
guest saved some of his supper to serve as break- 
fast next morning, does not seem to have been in 
use abroad. In Italy it was ordinary to begin the 
day at a wine-tavern, where boys waited to serve 
cakes as well as wine, on which foundation the 
economical Italian would many days last till 
supper. 

Practically, eating resolved itself into two meals 
a day, just what they were used to at home, and 
very fortunate it was they were used to it; to us 
it seems like alternately starving and over-eating. 
In Germany the latter extreme was the more 
common; in fact, it is not easy to see how the 
second meal was fitted in, considering the time 
one took, three to four hours. At Berne there was 
a law against sitting at table more than five hours; 
at Bale 10 a. m. to 6 p. m. was the maximum, but 
the town council were unable to practise their own 



Inns 



257 



counsels of perfection and on great occasions fin- 
ished in private. In Saxony the innkeeper was 
forbidden to serve more than four dishes at a meal ; 
and there public opinion was perhaps some check, 
inasmuch as the common saying was to compare 
the Saxon dishes, served as they were, one by one, 
to the tyrants of Sicily, each one of whom was a 
more fearful monster than his predecessor. 

Their neighbours, on the contrary, set all on the 
table at once in a two-decker on three iron feet; 
in the top story was the inevitable sauerkraut and 
beneath, roast meat, poultry, puddings, and what- 
ever else was to be had; so that an Englishman 
likened this two-decker to Noah's ark, as contain- 
ing all kinds of creatures. As to these German 
"puddings" there is no hard-and-fast rule to be 
drawn between them and sausages; and accord- 
ingly one cannot say for sure whether it was pud- 
ding or sausage which was the food Moryson had 
for supper one night near Erfurt; but the de- 
scription is of no importance compared with the 
size, for it was as big as a man's leg, conforming to 
the phrase in which the German expressed his 
idea of happiness, "Lange Wursten, Kurz Predi- 
gen" (long sausages, short sermons). One who 
journeyed through Hessen describes his diet as 
"mostly coleworts," but a Saxony dinner ordi- 
narily began with stewed cherries or prunes, 
continued with poultry or meat, the pot for 
which was set on the fire but once a week; and 



258 "Touring in 1600 

concluded with bacon to fill up the corners, as im- 
portant a consideration for the host as any one, 
for there was no greater reproach to hurl at the 
host than "Ich hab' mich da nicht satt gefressen" 
(" I did n't eat my belly-full there"). 

Bacon was of great account in Germany, so 
great that the owners were wont to bless their pigs 
when the latter trotted out of a morning, to en- 
sure their safe return; and told off a servant to 
wash them as they passed the fountain on their 
way back, which they took of their own accord. 
But while a well-fattened sow commanded a fancy 
price — as much as the equivalent of fifty pounds 
was paid at Heidelberg in 1593 for one who had 
become unable to eat a whole raw egg at a meal — 
sucking pigs were unknown as eatables; an Eng- 
lishman who bought one for food was forced to kill 
and prepare it himself on account of the unwilling- 
ness of the servants to touch it. What Saxony did 
lack was everything that was dependent on the 
yield of a cow; throughout Germany there was 
little cheese except that made from goat's milk. 

A common hors d'ceuvre was what were called 
"Neun Augen" — little lampreys that had nine 
eyes. Birds other than poultry were unusual: of 
veal and beef there was a moderate supply, of dried 
venison rather too much, as was the case at 
Hamburg with salmon. Dried fish you might ex- 
pect, with many sauces, all designed to create 
thirst; fresh fish was expected to be on view alive 



Inns 259 

beforehand in the kitchen; no German inn lacked 
a wooden fish-tank, kept under lock and key and 
supplied with running water. Supposing, however, 
that the sauces failed of their effect, the thirst was 
sure to come at the end of the meal with the help 
of little bits of bread, sprinkled with pepper and 
salt. Fruits were preserved habitually; especially 
apples and pears, which they halved, dried in the 
oven, and served up with cinnamon and butter. 
Black cherries they put in a brass pot, mixed with 
the best pears cut into small pieces and boiled and 
stirred till the contents were thick; then pressure 
was applied which sent the juice through holes in 
the bottom of the pot; it cooled solid, kept well, 
and was in every-day use as sauce for meat after 
it had been liquefied again. 

Italians had a sauce of their own, according to 
Moryson (who has also supplied all the above 
German recipes), made of bread steeped in broth, 
walnuts, some leaves of marjoram pounded in a 
mortar, and gooseberry juice. Much need they 
had of a sauce, too, for by the "lex Foscarini" it 
was forbidden to kill an ox until he was unfit for 
work in the fields. It may be suggested that it is 
time the "lex Foscarini" was repealed. In the 
north was plenty of mutton and veal; variety of 
fish and poultry, mushrooms, snails, and frogs; in 
Tuscany, kid and boar. First and last everywhere 
came butter and cheese; everywhere, that is, 
where any pretence was made of catering for 



260 Touring in 1600 

tourists; at Carrara Moryson found the inns only 
fit for labourers, and dined on herbs, eggs, and 
chestnuts, while Peter Mundy, near Turin, had to 
pay the equivalent of six shillings for " an egg and 
a frog and bad wine." De Thou, moreover, using a 
main road, that from Naples to Rome, became so 
done up through the badness of the inns as to seem 
to have completed a long and troublesome illness 
rather than a journey. But something might be 
said for the average Italian inn as seen from the 
street. Through the great open windows — really 
open, for there was rarely glass in Italian win- 
dows except at Venice — the tables were in view, 
always spread with white cloths, strewn with 
flowers and fig-leaves and fruits, with glasses set 
filled with different coloured wines; during sum- 
mer, the glasses would be floating in an earthen 
vessel, for coolness. 

In France, for some reason, Normandy seems 
to have made foreigners more comfortable than 
elsewhere, yet Picardy, so little distant, was just 
the opposite. Picardy, however, at this time was 
stamped with the character of border-country 
more disastrously than any other district of 
France. Nothing remained, indeed, to the country 
as a whole, as regards cooking, but a reputation 
for entrees, or, as they were called then, "quelques- 
choses." "A hard bed and an empty kitchen" was 
a common experience in different districts; one 
party arrived at Antibes, on the Riviera, in 1606, 



Inns 261 

to find one melon constituting all the provisions 
of the only inn. 

Comparison of the fare in the various countries 
of Europe shows no more striking inequalities of 
supply than is the case with butter: in Poland so 
plentiful as to be used for greasing cart-wheels; 
in France so scarce and so bad that English am- 
bassadors used to import theirs from home; in 
Spain still scarcer, except in cow-breeding Estre- 
madura. A German, when he wanted to buy 
butter, was directed to an apothecary, who pro- 
duced a little, and that much rancid, preserved in 
a she-goat's bladder for use as an ingredient in 
salves, telling him there was not such another 
quantity in all Castile. 

It was not merely on account of the sleeping 
accommodation that those who had been to Spain 
thanked God for their return and wondered at it. 
The wine, they said, was undrinkable, owing to 
the flavour imparted to it by the skins that held 
it; and as for eatables, all had to be bought sep- 
arately by the traveller and cooked by him when 
he was tired. A still greater trouble was to find 
any to buy. One complains that his stomach 
roared for want of victuals and had to be an- 
swered with nothing but roast onions; and so on. 
But here again can be traced the effects of their 
buying their experience in the north: what the 
south thought of the north may be guessed from 
the Andalusian hero of a picaresque tale recollect- 



262 Touring in 1600 

ing how the food of a Catalan acquaintance of his 
consisted of hard bread once every three days. 
The force of prejudice may be exemplified by a 
note or two from the journal of a courtier 4 who 
followed after Prince Charles when the latter 
went incognito to Madrid. His chief complaints 
as to food are: At the first stopping-place past 
Santander, whither notice of their coming had 
been sent a fortnight earlier, they had a plank 
instead of a table, a few eggs, half a kid burnt 
black, and no table linen. At a tavern in a wood, 
the woman laid a cloth on a stool by way of a 
table, and placed two loaves on it while she fried 
eggs and bacon for them: enter, from the wood, 
two black swine who knock the stool over and 
depart with a loaf each. And yet, although he has 
noted having enjoyed a good fat turkey at one 
place and very good hens at another, when he 
lands at Weymouth he says that there was more 
meat on the table than he had seen in two hundred 
miles riding in Spain. 

But even in the north different tales are told 
sometimes. Charles II, when in exile, writes from 
Saragossa, 5 "But I am very much deceived in the 
travelling in Spain, for, by all reports, I did ex- 
pect ill cheer and worse living, and hitherto we 
have found both the beds, and especially the meat 
very good. . . . God keep you, and send you to 
eat as good mutton as we have every meal." Lady 
Fanshawe is more detailed. " I find it a received 



Inns 263 

opinion that Spain affords not food either good 
or plentiful; true it is that strangers who have 
neither skill to choose, nor money to buy, will 
find themselves at a loss: but there is not in the 
Christian world better wines than their midland 
wines are especially, besides sherry and canary. 
Their water tastes like milk; their corn white to a 
miracle, and their wheat makes the sweetest and 
best bread in the world; bacon beyond belief good; 
the Segovia veal much larger and fatter than ours; 
mutton most excellent; capons much better than 
ours. . . . They have the best partridges I ever eat, 
and the best sausages; and salmons, pikes, and 
sea-breams which they send up in pickle to Madrid, 
and dolphins, which are excellent meat and carps, 
and many other sorts of fish. The cream, called 
'nata,' is much sweeter and thicker than any I 
ever saw in England; their eggs much exceed ours; 
and so all sorts of salads and roots and fruits. 
What I most admired are melons, peaches, burga- 
mot pears, grapes, oranges, lemons, citrons, figs, 
pomegranates; besides that I have eaten many 
sorts of biscuits, cakes, cheese, and excellent 
sweetmeats I have not here mentioned." 

Both these quotations, it is true, refer to the 
middle of the seventeenth century. 

England was a land of plenty in these days; 
Poland no less so. The sum of the experience of 
those who had first-hand means of comparison 
suggests that Poland was as great an importer of 



264 'Touring in 1600 

luxuries as any country in Europe. Muscovy did 
not import, but was well off, nevertheless ; plenty of 
beef, mutton, pork, and veal, and all the more of 
them for foreigners seeing that, with fast-days so 
numerous as they were, the natives had become so 
used to salt fish that they ate little meat, although 
the salt fish, insufficiently salted, was often in a 
state like that of the fish which the good angel 
provided for Tobit to protect him from a demon, 
the scent whereof was so terrible that it drove the 
fiend into the uttermost parts of Egypt. In Lent 
butter was replaced by caviare. An ambassador's 
secretary has a pleasant picture to draw of way- 
side fare; when they reached a village, the local 
priest would appear with gooseberries, or fish, or a 
hen, or some eggs, as a present; was rewarded with 
aqua-vitae, and generally went home drunk. 

As for food at sea, on small boats no fires were 
allowed. Then you were limited, in the Mediter- 
ranean, to biscuit, onions, garlic, and dried fish. 
On the bigger ships there was garlic again, to roast 
which and call it "pigeon" was a stock joke with 
the Greek sailors. On an Italian ship of nine hun- 
dred tons one traveller fared well: there were two 
table-d'hote rates; he chose the higher one: knife, 
spoon, fork, and a glass to himself were provided, 
fresh bread for three days after leaving a harbour, 
fresh meat at first and afterwards salt meat, and 
on fast days, eggs, fish, vegetables, and fruit. An 
English idea 6 of victualling a ship included wheat, 



Inns 265 

rice, currants, sugar, prunes, cinnamon, ginger, 
pepper, cloves, oil, old cheese, wine, vinegar, ca- 
nary sack, aqua-vitae, water, lemon juice, biscuit, 
oatmeal, bacon, dried neats' tongues, roast beef 
preserved in vinegar, and legs of mutton minced 
and stewed and packed in butter in earthen pots; 
together with a few luxuries, such as marmalade 
and almonds. 

Finally, there is the food to be met with in Ire- 
land, concerning which it is enough to quote: 7 
"Your diet shall be more welcome and plentiful 
than cleanly and handsome; for although they did 
never see you before, they will make you the best 
cheer their country yieldeth for two or three days 
and take not anything therefor." 

Except in Italy, fingers invariably did the work 
of forks; and often of knives, too. The French 
were the only people who were in the habit of 
washing before they sat down to table; but this is 
by no means so much to their credit as it seems at 
first sight, for it was the result of their getting into 
such a state previously as to render them intoler- 
able even to themselves. Except for the effects of 
drunkenness, the Germans appear to have been 
the pleasantest table companions, in spite of all 
sitting at one round table; or rather, because of it, 
for men were the more careful of behaving in a 
way to which they would have no objection if 
their neighbours imitated it. Moreover German's 
made a practice of having a bath every Saturday 



266 'Touring in 1600 

night. From this common table no one was ex- 
cluded in Germany except the hangman, for whose 
exclusive use a separate table was reserved. The 
rest of the dining-room furniture consisted of a 
leather-covered couch for those who were too 
drunk to do anything but lie down. 

As to plates and vessels, no general statement 
would serve, not even for one country, owing to 
the rapidity with which the supply of silver in- 
creased during these centuries. In 15 17 an Ital- 
ian 8 notes of Flanders that all their vessels, of the 
church, the kitchen, and the bedroom, were of 
English brass, but that statement no one confirms 
later. Wood was common in proportion to the un- 
pretentiousness of the inn; except in Muscovy, 
where it was almost invariable through the fre- 
quency and thoroughness of destruction by fires 
which caused the use of the most easily replace- 
able material; the few silver tankards they pos- 
sessed were rendered unattractive by their custom 
of cleaning drinking vessels but once a year. 

The transition from pewter to silver is most 
clearly marked in France. The former was in gen- 
eral use as late as Montaigne's time; even he, who 
owns to making himself in a horrid mess at meal- 
times, was glad to escape from its greasiness. By 
the middle of the next century an Italian priest 
notes that the inn-utensils were mostly of silver, 
although the chalices which he was given for mass 
were mostly tin; and De Gourville, in his autobio- 



Inns 267 

graphy, mentions that, on being asked by the gov- 
ernment for an estimate of the total amount of 
silver in France, gave a higher estimate than the 
other experts because he based his on what he had 
noticed in the course of his frequent journeys 
about the provinces, in the middle of the seven- 
teenth century, how every tavern had spoons and 
forks of silver and some a basin and ewer. And as 
silver drinking-vessels were common among the 
English middle-classes earlier than this, it may be 
assumed that inns were so provided, too; in fact, in 
England silver was considered somewhat vulgar 
for drinking purposes, gentlemen preferring Vene- 
tian glass. The Venetians themselves used glass, as 
did other Italians; likewise the French; Germans 
drank from pewter or stone, and their plates were 
often of wood, when they had any; it would give 
an altogether too high idea of sixteenth-century 
luxury to imagine that every one was given a plate. 
Certainly no one had more than one at a meal, 
though there is nothing to show that he might not 
turn it over to use the clean side — unless he was 
at sea, in which case he would risk being thrown 
overboard, because every sailor knew that a plate 
upside down signified shipwreck. 

Inseparable from the inns are the bathing- 
places; in most cases the baths formed part of the 
inn premises. At Abano, near Padua, the chief 
bathing resort of Italy, were private rooms with a 
"guarderobbe" 9 adjoining, through which latter 



268 Touring in 1600 

a stream of the water could be turned on. Baden 
in Switzerland was exceptional in having baths 
under public control, for poor as well as for rich, 
besides those in private hands. The inn Montaigne 
stayed at had eleven kitchens, three hundred per- 
sons were catered for each day, one hundred and 
seventy-seven beds made, and every one could 
reach his room without passing through any one 
else's. His party engaged four rooms, containing 
no more than nine beds; two of the rooms had 
stoves; and a private bath adjoined. Swiss Baden 
possessed sixty baths, German Baden three hun- 
dred. Spa was much visited, but most of the 
watering-places have been practically forgotten, so 
far as the water is concerned, Pougues-les-Eaux, the 
chief centre in France, for instance, and Aachen, 
where there existed forty baths outside the town, 
although the chief ones were within. 

The object of the visitors was as much medici- 
nal nominally and as little so really, as might be 
expected. "Many come thither with no disease 
but that of love: and many times find remedy." 10 
The conditions seem somewhat free and easy: 
in Rome it was customary to go accompanied by 
a lady friend in spite of the masseurs being male; 
of Plombieres Montaigne says that it was reck- 
oned indecent for men to bathe naked or for 
women to wear less than a chemise; from which it 
may be gathered what ordinary conditions were. 
The bathing there was "mixed," as at the German 



GERMAN BATHING-PLACES 

From Minster's Cosmography : two of the woodcuts are from the 
French edition of 1575 (ii. 1020-21), the other from the Latin edi- 
tion of 1550. Visitors to Berlin will find the subject more artisti- 
cally illustrated by the " Jugendlnunnen' 1 '' of Lucas Cranach the 
younger, too large for reproduction here to do it justice. 



Inns 269 

baths where these restrictions were not in force 
and where, consequently, the sight of scores of 
young couples and parties, some family parties, 
some not, in a state of nature, or very nearly so, 
amusing themselves with games played at float- 
ing tables, or without any help at all, excited the 
shame, the interest, and the participation of for- 
eigners from all quarters. Ladies, however, who 
needed baths and preferred decency, were pro- 
vided for at Swiss Baden, where private baths were 
for hire, well lighted by glazed windows, painted, 
panelled, and clean, with conveniences for reading. 
The building of Turkish baths seemed to Delia 
Valle to afford more likelihood of a chill than the 
Italian; but it was, he says, all one could expect 
for the price, which was much lower. How much 
lower is not clear, but evidently considerably so, 
the result of a difference of habit; in Italy the 
poor did not bathe, in Turkey the rich bathed at 
home. 

Quite apart from bathing customs, however, 
the position of the lady traveller must frequently 
have been embarrassing. Many a nephew, per- 
haps, may disbelieve that they ever did travel in 
the days when no hot-water bottles existed; but 
that would be a mistake; there is record of at least 
two substitutes : ( 1 ) a bag of semolina, or millet, 
heated, ( 2 ) a dog. A more serious objection is 
that the privacy of the bedroom was not respected. 
Even in France, a murderer was lodged in Golnitz's 



'270 'Touring in 1600 



room for the night together with the six guard- 
ians who were escorting him to the place of trial, 
and in Picardy bedrooms were merely partitioned 
off; doors and windows lying open all night with 
no means of fastening them. But a permanently 
open window would have been welcome on occa- 
sions; as when in 1652 Mademoiselle de Mont- 
pensier lodged at an inn in Franche-Comte with 
no window at all in her room, and consequently 
had to do her hair at the door. 

Again, respectable women would not be travel- 
ling alone, and as bedrooms were so few they 
would always have to be prepared to share the 
room with their escort, even if with no other man, 
a condition which persisted up to far more recent 
times. In 1762, writes M. Babeau, a lawyer, 
travelling through Perigord with a lady client, 
her son, and a girl, had to put up at an inn which 
owned but two beds and those both in one room. 
This room, by the way, possessed two doors, one 
opening on a meadow, and with joinery so im- 
perfect that a dog could have crept in underneath 
it; no dog took the chance, it is true, but the wind 
did. In the previous century was often reprinted 
a "Traite de la civilite qui se pratique parmi 
les honnetes gens" which established the pro- 
cedure to be followed in these embarrassing cir- 
cumstances. The escort must allow the lady to 
undress and get into bed first, and, for himself, 
take care to undress at a distance from her bed 



Inns 



271 



and remain "tranquille et paisible" through the 
night. In the morning he ought to be well ad- 
vanced with his dressing before she awoke. But 
this book was evidently unknown to Sterne when 
he pursued his "Sentimental Journey," for when 
he had to share his room with a lady who was a 
total stranger, they drew up a special treaty 
which both promised to observe and which each 
accused the other of breaking. 

Of lodgings and "pensions" and houses for hire, 
it is unnecessary to speak, because apart from the 
conditions of living that have already been indi- 
cated there is nothing to distinguish them from 
those of to-day; "pensions" are doubtless still to 
be found in the same variety now as two hundred 
and fifty years ago at Blois — "dainty, magnifi- 
cent, dirty, pretty fair, and stinking." 

Supervision over the inns was far stricter than 
at present, especially in Italy. At Lucca and Flor- 
ence all the inns were in a single street; and in 
many towns the new arrival was taken before the 
authorities by the guard at the gates previous to 
choosing his inn, to which he would be conducted 
by a soldier. At Lucca, too, was a department of 
the judiciary, called "della loggia," which was 
specially concerned with strangers, and to this 
the innkeepers had to send a daily report on each 
guest. Yet to judge by the tourists' accounts, the 
supervision might well have been carried further 
and reports on the innkeepers required from the 



272 Touring in 1600 

tourists. Such a system of double reports would 
have been a check on the murdering innkeeper, to 
whom there are occasional references; one had 
been detected at Poictiers shortly before Lauder's 
arrival, and at Stralesund, another's tale runs, 
eight hundred (!) persons had disappeared at 
one inn. They had reappeared, it is true — 
pickled. Another kind of innkeeper who ran less 
risk but was equally dangerous was he who was 
in league with robbers; it was common enough, 
if travellers may be believed, for robbers to have 
spies in the inns. At Acciaruolo, near Naples, an- 
other device was practised by the keeper of an 
atrocious inn. He had an understanding with the 
captains of coasting- vessels, the result of which 
was that the latter found it impossible to get any 
further that night or to let the passengers sleep in 
the boat. 

It must have occurred to the reader that this 
is a most one-sided chapter: the tourist has been 
having his say so uninterruptedly that even a 
clergyman in the pulpit might envy him. What of 
the innkeepers' side of the question ? Fortunately 
that can be presented, too, with the help of a 
manuscript so unique that it must be described 
now instead of being buried in the bibliography. It 
is nothing less than an account of an Innkeepers' 
Congress in 1610, written by a delegate. At least, 
an expert palaeographer (whose name I am not 



THE RED GATE, ANTWERP 

Asitwas about the middle of the sixteenth century {plate I of Peter 
Breugel the elder's "Pradiorum Villarum . . . hones"; Bibl. 
Royale de Belgique), showing also the inn which, according to the 
custom so convenient to late arrivals, was usually to be found outside 
the gate of a town. 



Inns 273 

permitted to give for fear of another expert palae- 
ographer) affirms it to be in a fairly recent com- 
mercial script; and it certainly is in English. 
Nevertheless, there can be no doubt as to its gen- 
uineness. There is no inn, for example, of the three 
hundred and fifty-eight referred to above which 
is not mentioned in it; neither is there any inn 
that is so mentioned that is not to be found among 
the said three hundred and fifty-eight. Subjective 
tests, moreover, however dangerous, have their 
value, and it will appear that the wealth, and, so 
far as it can be checked, the accuracy of detail, the 
turns of phrase and of mind, equally characteris- 
tic of the innkeeper and the sixteenth century, 
leave no more room for doubt here than, to take 
a report of a meeting, in the case of the account 
of the sayings and doings of the agriculturists in 
session of which Flaubert made such instructive 
use in his biography of the late Madame Bovary. 

The congress was held at Rothenburg on the 
Tauber, not so very far from Nuremberg, that 
town being chosen because no tourist was ever 
known to go there, any more then than now; and 
consequently none was better adapted to prevent 
more than one side of the question being heard, 
— which, as every one knows, means life or death 
to a congress. 

London was represented by Paolo Lucchese, and 
four Englishmen were also present, the four who 
saw most of foreigners who had been to England 



274 "Touring in 1600 

and of Englishmen who had been abroad : namely, 
William Cooke of Douay, the host of the 
"Golden Head" at Calais, another of Dieppe 
whose name and whose sign are alike illegible, and 
lastly the notorious Zacharias of Genoa, who told 
how he had been wrecked in West Indian seas 
and had swum twenty-two leagues with the ship's 
carpenter, pushing the latter's tool-chest before 
him, and how the tinder-box which he put in his 
hair did not even get wet; all just as he told it to 
Evelyn years afterwards, until every one got tired 
of him. The only Scot was Miltounof the "Croix 
de Fer" at Paris (Rue St. Martin). 

From France the delegates were Robert Buquet 
of Rouen, Du Peyrat of Loudun, Parracan of 
Aries, whose inn had no sign because his wine was 
so good that it needed none, Christopher Prezel of 
the "Lion d 'Or de la Lanterne " of Lyons — but a 
full list is, after all, of no great interest. It is suffi- 
cient to say, to give some idea of the value that 
attaches to the report of the proceedings, that al- 
most every delegate was a host in himself. For the 
rest, genealogists in the employ of American mil- 
lionaires can have access direct to the manuscript; 
such things are best left in private hands. 

The ladies, however, must not be omitted. Old 
Donna Justina of Venice was there, in spite of its 
being as much as thirty years earlier that De Thou 
had been recommended to her as the only inn- 
keeper of the city in whose house none but respect- 



Inns 275 

able women were to be found. Berenguela de 
Rebolledo likewise attended, lady-in-waiting at 
an inn at Madrid, cheerful, inquisitive, and a flirt, 
just as Pablos de Segovia knew her, with a bit of a 
lisp, scared of mice, vain of her hands, and a blush- 
rose and gloire-de-Dijon complexion. Then there 
was Marie Bertram, who ran the "venta" the 
other side of Yrun, and the girl harpist who played 
at the inns at Brussels, of whom the appropriate 
remark to make was to quote, — 

Haec habiles agili praetentat pollice chordas: 
Tarn doctas quis non possit amare manus? 

Two elderly parties were likewise present who, 
thirty years earlier, had been the two pretty 
daughters of the one-eyed host of the "Red Lion" 
at Dordrecht, the same host who warned Van 
Buchell, the antiquary, when a youngster, against 
French girls. They were given, he said, to mak- 
ing advances; once one kissed him, and for a long 
time afterwards he did not think he could live 
without her. 

But the belle of the congress seems to have 
been the daughter of the innkeeper at Bourgoin, 
the second post-house this side of Chambery, 
since there is a marginal note against her name, 
evidently retained from the original, "Ista capit 
biscottum." This confirms the account given of 
her by Lord Herbert of Cherbury in his autobio- 
graphy; his friends had told him she was the most 



276 Touring in 1600 

beautiful girl they had ever seen, so he rode over 
from Lyons to see her, "and after about an hour's 
stay departed thence without offering so much as 
the least incivility." Finally there was a widow 
from Tours; the one from the "Three Kings," 
known as "La Gogueline"; the other widow of 
Tours, of the " Three Moors," stayed at home, 
fearing to endanger her reputation as the "mother 
of the Germans" by so long an absence. Widow 
Gogueline, however, told the writer that the other 
was better known as their stepmother and that 
there was a rhyme which ran: — 

Quand vostre bourse est trop pleine 
Allez aux 'Mores' en Touraine: 
Je vous jure que vous serez 
En peu de temps en deschargez. 

It was taken for granted that the president 
must be an Italian; and Francisco Marco of Ven- 
ice was chosen for that geniality of his that in 
years to come was to charm James Howell. He 
opened the proceedings with some graceful presi- 
dential irrelevancies, commenting on the antiquity 
and fame of Rothenburg and so forth, and then 
explained the purposes of this Innkeepers' Con- 
gress as twofold. Its primary object, he said, was 
the advancement of God's glory; secondly, the 
furtherance of the interests of innkeepers and 
their customers, which, he added, were at bottom 
identical. The committee had invited certain of 



Inns 277 

the delegates who were especially well acquainted 
with foreigners to explain, or refute, what visitors 
found objectionable. The assembled innkeepers 
could then return able to inform, each one his own 
countrymen, before the latter's departure, what 
must be looked for in the parts he was travelling 
towards, and how unavoidable, and even desirable, 
those characteristics were. The president there- 
fore called upon Messer Bevigliano ("Chiavi 
d'Oro," Florence) to speak for Italy. 

Three things, said Messer Bevigliano, hinder 
us Italians from doing our best for the commun- 
ity: the licensing system, ' tied-houses,' and la- 
bour difficulties. I should be the last to suggest 
the abolition of our picturesque custom in use 
when an inn is to be let. At the auction a candle is 
lighted : the highest bid before the candle goes out 
wins the business. But the periods of tenancy, one 
and six years, alternately, in Florentine territory, 
are inconvenient. Far worse, however, are the 
prices extorted, especially from those who keep 
inns outside the gates of towns, the use of which 
is so necessary to such as are compelled to arrive 
late, or wish to leave early. Even apart from 
these, the majority pay 100-150 crowns (£150- 
£225 present value) for their licenses; some 500 
or 600. At Venice wine-shops and inns pay 1000 
crowns. The proportion this bears to the rent may 
be judged from the case of an old widow I know 
8 miles from Florence whose rent was 23 crowns 



278 "Touring in 1600 

and whose license was 56. Another inn, kept by 
a shoemaker, a freehold house worth 6 crowns a 
year, pays 20 crowns for license, while the other 
license, for shoemaking, only costs a Giulio and a 
half. 

What I mean by a ' tied ' house is one which 
belongs to the owner of a large estate who allows 
nothing to be sold there except the produce of 
that estate. 

Lastly, as to labour, the custom of the country 
is against the use of women-servants, against even 
the host's wife and daughter assisting him. What, 
Messer Bevigliano concluded, apart from ordinary 
routine-work, would happen to your Fair at Miil- 
hausen if there were no girls to serve the drinks ? 

Next came Francisco Marques of Alicante, well 
known to sailors of every nationality. What he 
laid most stress on has in the main been antici- 
pated by Charles II and Lady Fanshawe, but he 
supplemented it as follows: In the towns clean 
and comfortable beds were to be had, with meals 
ready. Many posadas, he admitted, provided no- 
thing but utensils, table-linen, oil, salt, vinegar; yet 
travellers were then neither better nor worse 
off than in Poland, Bohemia, and Picardy, where 
the custom was likewise. As for the wayside inns 
which gave nothing but a roof and horse-proven- 
der, they barely existed outside Castile and Ara- 
gon, and there the wayfarer should prepare accord- 
ingly, as the Spaniard did, who journeyed with a 



Inns 279 

bag full of provisions on each side of the saddle and 
a bottle of wine to each bag. As to the supposed 
lack of meat, he went on, most Spaniards are vege- 
tarians; and considering the achievements of the 
Spanish infantry, I do not think any one can find 
fault with the principle. Neither does this apply 
to the lower classes only, for we have a rhyme 
which says : — 

Unas Azeytunas, una Salada, y Revanillos 
Son comida de Caballeros; 

and so far from altering our ways, the ancient 
rule that a gentleman who has partaken of onions 
shall absent himself from court for eight days has 
fallen into abeyance. For those who prefer meat, 
there is plenty. Fowls, I know, are scarce, and 
you are so used to fowls that you think "no fowls, 
no meat " ; and yet, I remember when I was a small 
boy and Queen Anne arrived at Santander" to 
marry good King Philip II, she was presented there 
with two hundred fowls and a calf. As to sheep, 
ask the eight Germans who recently ate a whole 
one between them; besides, does not the famous 
Lazarillo de Tormes tell us that it is the regular 
thing at Maqueda to eat sheep's heads on Satur- 
days at three maravedis apiece? and on fast days 
we have special permission to eat cow-heels and 
sucking pigs. Now, how can these things be if we 
have no sheep nor cows nor little pigs? On the 
contrary, you Germans, who take so well justi- 



280 Touring in 1600 

fied a pride in your bacon at home, how is it you 
say nothing about it after a week or so with us? 
Why, we have an author, Lope da Vega Carpio, 
who will soon be recognised as the greatest writer 
since Seneca, who always takes a rasher of our 
bacon before starting to write, as a stimulant! 

But I can quote something better than your 
own experience — the words of the King and of 
St. Michael. Charles V advised the great Alonzo 
de Guzman against going to Italy, "Better stay at 
home and kill rabbits on your own hills and eat 
them than be killed by the sea and be eaten by the 
fishes": and when the said Alonzo dreamed that 
he was dead, St. Michael appeared and sentenced 
him to return to earth for his misdeeds and eat 
roast meat and be content; and Alonzo found 
himself able to arrange for roast duck in summer- 
time and an "olla" keeping hot in the chimney in 
winter. If I say nothing as to wild boar and par- 
tridge, it is merely because it is getting late. But 
I will just add this in confidence, that people, we 
find, pay more willingly when the bill is accom- 
panied by a cheerful " Y haga les buen provecho. " 

The Muscovy delegate, "Cologne Jimmy" of 
Nerva, had drawn the third place; but being tem- 
porarily bereft of his faculties by the number of 
drinks new to him, a discussion was substituted 
at the instance of M. Petit, who enjoyed most of 
the French custom at Rome, on the evil of free 
board and lodging which various institutions pro- 



Inns 281 

vided, a most demoralising custom and very hard 
on those who wished to gain an honest living. At 
Seville and Montserrat, he had heard, things had 
come to well-to-do people being given fish as well 
as bread, and at Amsterdam foundations were 
even being instituted on a secular basis. That 
they might be in a better position to take action, 
it was proposed to form an Innkeepers' Associa- 
tion, but when an Irish waiter from Madrid sug- 
gested as a motto, "Pediculus procomite jucundo," 
recriminations ensued which soon rendered ad- 
journment necessary. 

Nevertheless, at the banquet in the evening all 
passed of! happily in the traditional way. 

In principio est silentium, 
In medio stridor dentium, 
Et in fine rumor gentium. 

The next day began well too, with the speech 
of Jean Busson ("Le Fardeau" Dieppe), who ex- 
cused the faults of the French host as attributable 
to the civil wars, and said that whether or no re- 
ligion was "reformed," cookery certainly was, and 
that in future the traditions of Guillot's of Amiens 
would be upheld. At the same time he felt he 
would be next door to a traitor if he owned to 
any serious faults, for supposing that such were 
imagined, French chambermaids could be trusted 
to keep the visitors happy (great applause). But 
he had a proposal to bring forward. He found 



282 Touring in 1600 

they had a custom in Germany, which was also 
used at Bourges, which deserved extension. He 
referred to the watchmen who lived at the top 
of the town belfry and signalled the approach of 
travellers to those below by means of flags; at 
Ferrara and Bruges and elsewhere, the signalling 
was done with bells. Now this ought to be cus- 
tomary everywhere, and whereas here in Germany 
the watchmen descended at meal-times and made 
a collection at the inns, surely the municipal au- 
thorities ought to pay them. A resolution to this 
effect was passed unanimously. 

The Low Country delegates caused considerable 
dissatisfaction by their memorial insisting that 
nobody had complaints to make of their inns, 
nor would there be any anywhere if pains were 
taken to be up-to-date and, above all things, 
clean. But their brethren were grateful for the 
warning that it was becoming the custom with 
travellers to slip leaden bullets into the cheese, 
where they found the custom in vogue of charg- 
ing for it according to the difference in weight be- 
fore and after it was set on the table; and agreed 
with them when they pointed out that the system 
of putting up a list of things customers might not 
do and fining them when these rules were trans- 
gressed, was breaking down. An innkeeper from 
Augsburg gave an instance; his request, he said, 
not to foul the walls was so far from being heeded 
that he kept one man at work cleaning them. 



Inns 283 

It was this member from Augsburg who brought 
about the unhappy ending of the Congress, for, 
in commenting on the Low Countrymen's stric- 
tures, he tactlessly quoted the Italian proverb 
"Dal hoste nuovo e dalla putana vecchia, Dio ci 
guarda," and then went on to lay it down as irre- 
futable that nobody grumbled unless he thought 
he had been done. This was easily avoided, he 
said ; treat all alike ; no man ever grumbled in Ger- 
many except new-comers and unreasonable peo- 
ple. Why? because Germans had fixed prices; 
the only system which was conformable with 
God's law. By this time the interpreters fairly 
trembled as they translated, but when, speaking 
as he did in Latin, he went on to apply to the sys- 
tem of variable charges the adjectives that were 
in daily use in theological controversy, the others 
understood without help and a battle ensued. 
First in words, beginning with shouts of "Pese al 
diablo," "Voto a Dios," and other Spanish ex- 
pressions, of which, together with all the Italian, 
not even the initial letters could be printed, an- 
swered with "Bey Gott den Herrn," "Meine 
Seele," "Der Teufel hole dich," "Gottes Kranck- 
heit," without, curiously enough, the use of a sin- 
gle one of those employed by historical novelists. 
To words succeeded blows; and there the Con- 
gress ended. 



CHAPTER VII 

ON THE ROAD 

A journey is a fragment of hell. 

Awliyai Efendi (1611-1679). 

WHAT M. Babeau, in his charming " Les 
Voyageurs en France," says of the 
history of France since the eleventh 
century, that it may be divided into three pe- 
riods, of the horse, the carriage, and the railway, 
is true of most of Europe. He goes on to point out 
that the first period synchronises with the feudal 
system, the second with uncontrolled monarchy. 
And this was not a matter of chance, for the im- 
provement in the state of the roads implied by the 
substitution of driving for riding directly resulted 
from the centralisation of authority. A feudal 
system tended to keep the roads bad, partly be- 
cause no one authority received such exclusive 
and overwhelming benefits from the roads as to 
be ready to bear the cost of their upkeep; partly 
because the constant petty warfare which feu- 
dalism gave rise to often made neighbours desire 
that approaches should be difficult rather than 
easy. 

In 1600 the transition was in its infancy; and 
even during the subsequent half-century is only 



A MAIN ROAD IN ALSACE 

Showing ruts and loose stones. From Minister's" Cosmograpkia" 1 
{1550; p. 455). 



On the Road 285 

noticeable in a marked degree in France. Even 
there, the change was not from bad roads to good, 
but from very bad to a state of uncertainty. One 
road, it is true, is mentioned as paved, at any date 
during these two centuries, that from Paris to 
Orleans, but by Evelyn's time there were many 
such in France; while, on the other hand, on the 
king's highway between Bourges and Lyons the 
horses of Golnitz and his companions fell into a 
marsh, whence they were rescued with difficulty; 
and on another highway (Paris-Bordeaux) Claude 
Perrault, the architect of the Louvre, speaks of 
one occasion when night overtook him before he 
had reached his stopping-place; and the holes in 
the road being so deep as to render it almost im- 
passable for his carriage, a quarter of a league 
took him four hours to cover. 

Elsewhere in Europe, things seem to be remain- 
ing much as they had been. Here and there in 
Italy sections of Roman road which had been 
maintained in fair condition continued to be 
patched in imitation of Roman methods until they 
appeared excellent in contrast with the others; 
what the others were made of travellers do not 
say, but it may be guessed that they were paved 
like hell in the proverb. Montaigne might note 
with sadness how the Via Flaminia had shrunk 
from forty feet broad to four between Loreto and 
Lucca, although one may query where he found 
that it was ever more than fifteen feet across ; but 



286 "Touring in 1600 

no one else had recourse to archaeology to make 
himself grieve. The following is a tale that Riva- 
deneyra, Loyola's boy-friend and biographer, tells 
of some of the other early associates during a walk 
from Venice to Rome. Being Lent, they fasted ex- 
cept for what they received in alms. "And one Sun- 
day it befell that, having tasted no more than a 
few mouthfuls of bread that morning, they trudge 
twenty-eight miles of that land on their bare feet ; 
and all the day the rain comes down pitilessly, 
whereby they find the roads turned into lakes, 
and that so truly that there are times when the 
water reaches their chests." He continues, "None 
the less they feel within them a marvellous con- 
tentment and joyousness; and being mindful that 
they were enduring these troubles of the flesh for 
love of God, gave thanks to Him without ceasing, 
singing David's psalms in metre; and even Master 
Juan Coduri, who was suffering with the itch in 
both of his legs, was no whit the worse for the 
trials of this day." 

It was always the rain that caused the trouble, 
although the state of the roads when dry must have 
been fearful for ordinary wet weather to effect so 
rapid a deterioration. From Ferrara to Bologna 
was reckoned a half-day's journey in summer, a 
whole day in winter. And in 1606 an Italian says 
of the roads near Strassburg that the mud, stones, 
and holes compelled the horses to go single file, 
each one stepping in the tracks of the leader; near 



On the Road 287 

Ypres they found the road often indistinguish- 
able from the fields, and the mud came up to the 
horses' girths. 

In dry weather the only complaint is against 
loose stones on steep gradients, which latter nat- 
urally occur far more frequently on the old roads 
than on modern ones, keeping, as the former do, 
to high ground for choice. The fact that by this 
means traffic was less at the mercy of floods seems 
to be considered reason enough for the habit, but 
perhaps it was also found to give greater protection 
against highwaymen, who were thereby afforded 
fewer opportunities for attacking from higher 
ground, and for concealment. One place in partic- 
ular where these loose stones formed a serious hin- 
drance was Scaricalasino, between Bologna and 
Florence, so named (scarica l'asino means "un- 
load the ass") because what with the badness of 
the road and the sharpness of the stones the asses 
had to be relieved of their burdens at intervals. 
So, too, the secretary of a Venetian embassy writes 
that between Terni and Assisi the way was so 
rough as well as muddy that it cost the party of 
forty fourteen hours and the deaths of four horses 
to do twenty miles. 1 

Another difficulty, sometimes a peril, to be 
faced were the fords. On the main road, for ex- 
ample, from Rome to France, through Florence, 
there was the river Paglia to cross, which bounded 
Papal territory in that direction. The passage 



288 Touring in 1600 

still remained a ford, although after rain it would 
be impassable for a week at a time. And where, 
on the map, north of Venice, you see the Taglia- 
mento divide into seven branches, there, through 
them, lay the road which joined Italy with Ger- 
many. Yet only one branch had a bridge over it, 
and the fords through the others were dangerous 
enough to keep guides at work. It is not surpris- 
ing, then, to find Sir Thomas Browne's son having 
to engage two men to walk beside his horse up- 
stream to break the force of the current lest it 
should carry the horse off his feet, since the river 
was the Var, in the Riviera, and across a less im- 
portant road. 

Sometimes travellers preferred the ford even 
where a bridge existed, as did one 2 at St. Jean de 
Maurienne on the post- route from France to Italy 
because the bridge was in such disrepair as to be 
unsafe. The same traveller crossed by boat at 
Otricoli beside the ruins of a Roman bridge which 
had once been a link in the Via Flaminia. On the 
bridges the same political reasons that kept the 
roads difficult had set their mark, accounting as 
they do for the number of wooden bridges, easier 
to dismantle in case of a raid. The bridges of 
Strassburg and Vienna were particularly striking 
examples of this; the planks were not even fas- 
tened down; if one end tipped up, a plank was as 
likely as not to fall into the river. Neither were 
there any rails at the sides. That was not excep- 



On the Road 289 

tional, either, in spite of a bridge being worthy of 
remark if broad enough for two carts to pass each 
other. But whether it was the initial cheapness, 
or the habit of precaution, there they were, in 
spite of the cost of their upkeep, thirty thousand 
thalers yearly in the case of the one at Yarunov 
on the Vistula in the middle of the seventeenth 
century, when a thaler was nearly equal to one 
pound at present value. Yet the traveller 3 who 
reports this says his horse trod a hole in it. And 
in Hungary, when Busbecq returned from Turkey 
by road, the bridges offered so many traps for 
horses that robbers laid in wait under bridges for 
their best opportunities. 

As for stone bridges, Spain seems to have been 
the best off before 1600, but subsequently the im- 
provement in bridges became very marked, espe- 
cially in France. When Zinzerling knew Paris 
(1612-16), of its five bridges, only two were of 
stone, whereas of the six that Evelyn saw in 1643, 
but one was of wood. The only stone bridges in 
the empire that are mentioned are those of Schaff- 
hausen, of Ratisbon, and, over the Moselle, of 
Coblentz ; while two of the finest west of the 
Rhine, those of Avignon and Rouen, were im- 
passable owing to gaps which no authority saw 
its way to repair. But the test of a first-rate 
bridge in 1600 was not how much traffic, but how 
many houses, it carried. Judged by this standard, 
it was agreed that London Bridge was the finest, 



290 Touring in 1600 

with that of Notre Dame at Paris second, con- 
sidering the latter's houses numbered sixty-eight. 
Still, it was with the number of bridges that the 
tourist was mainly concerned, in which matter 
he would find the Loire the only river across which 
passage was fairly easy; the Rhine had no bridge 
below Strassburg; the Seine had to be crossed five 
times by boat in the first four leagues of road 
northwards from Paris; and below Turin there 
existed no bridge over the Po except a wooden 
one at Ferrara. 

Means of conveyance consisted of riding, sub- 
divided into post-horses and other beasts; by 
cart, either the long, heavy waggon employed by 
carriers, or those with two big wheels and no more, 
which occasioned the traveller fewest shocks ; and 
lastly, by litter. Coaches, in the sense of vehicles 
which are supposed to be comfortable, can hardly 
be said to have existed except among private own- 
ers, and even these preferred the litter, especially 
in winter. The acme of luxury when on the road 
may be represented by Marguerite de Valois' litter 
used on her journey to the Netherlands. The lin- 
ing was of Spanish velvet, the hangings of silk, 
the sides glazed with one hundred and forty panes 
of glass, each of which bore a different design. 

As for carts, though everywhere one comes 
across occasional instances of their use by tour- 
ists, this was far more customary in Germany 
than elsewhere; even a knight-errant going to 



On the Road 291 

seek his fortune, Sir Anthony Sherley, mentions 
covering distances in them there without apology. 
The German " rollwagen" carried six or eight pas- 
sengers; those of the Low Countries as many as 
ten, sitting on boards laid across the cart so close 
behind one another that they resembled geese 
going to the pond. The chief centre for carrier- 
arrangements was Augsburg; thence to Venice and 
back a waggon went each week; between Augs- 
burg and Nuremberg daily. In France convey- 
ances started running more freely as the civil 
wars slackened, as, e. g. between Troyes and 
Paris in 1598; a reversion to what had been in 
force earlier. But in 1584 between Amiens and 
Paris, and in 1586 between Rouen and Paris, was 
running what was called the " coche royale," which 
took passengers. 4 By Zinzerling's time communi- 
cations of this kind existed between Paris and 
Orleans, and Paris and Rouen, daily; between 
Rouen and Dieppe thrice weekly; and between 
Rouen and Antwerp. 

The disadvantages of waggons were more ob- 
vious in the Low Countries than elsewhere, since 
there they never entered towns, depositing the 
passenger, heavy luggage and all, outside the 
gate; often, too, a change of waggons was obliga- 
tory during the day, whereas an English carter 
drove straight on, too long, in fact, for his custom 
was to keep on the move from dawn till sunset. 
The Dutchman, in addition, was usually drunk 



292 Touring in 1600 

and drove his mares (always mares) like a mad- 
man, and passengers found it advisable, besides, 
to wear spectacles to protect their eyes against 
the sand thrown up by the road-menders. All 
waggons were provided with awnings, of cloth or 
leather. 

In Italy and Spain practically all traffic was 
four-footed. Post-horses were always for hire in 
Italy, with a bit of fur attached to their bridles to 
mark their status. The owner gave the hirer a 
ticket to show his host at the end of the day's 
journey, who would then take care of the horse 
until a return fare was forthcoming; no security 
was asked. It was a novel experience for most 
foreigners to ride one post-horse all day: in Eng- 
land the stages were ten miles; in France, in the 
seventeenth century, four or five, so that a trav- 
eller in a hurry would change horses as many as 
eighteen to twenty-two times a day. The reason 
for the difference lay in the pace, the standard for 
which was much lower in a country like Italy, 
where mules and asses were habitually used. In 
fact, when the pace was set by the mules, as, for 
instance, in the Rome-Naples caravans, all who 
accompanied which had to keep together for fear 
of robbers, a man might be in the saddle all day 
and cover no more than twenty miles. As for 
wheeled traffic, it may be imagined from the state 
of the roads that the pace often sank to nothing 
at all. After several breakdowns, one traveller 



On the Road 293 

writes: "Advanced that day as far as the cursed 
carriages would give us leave, and the rest of 
the day practised Christian patience. . . . Carts 
ought to be put in the Litany." 

The above must be understood as leaving Mus- 
covy out of account, for that was the one country 
where the journey itself could, under favourable 
circumstances, be continued with comfort. Once 
the ground was hard enough for sledges, the trav- 
eller could travel night and day and yet sleep as 
long as he felt inclined. Nor did the gain end with 
positive comfort and double the available time, 
since the diminished strain on the horses enabled 
them to go at a greater pace for a longer period. 
Twelve leagues without a change of horses and a 
hundred leagues in three days represent what was 
practicable in the ordinary way amid a Russian 
winter; treble what would be reckoned good for 
any conveyance elsewhere. 

In Dante's "Purgatorio" (II, 11-12) is a com- 
parison well commented on, unconsciously, in 
these travel-books. It is when he speaks of him- 
self wandering 

Come gente che pensa a suo cammino, 
Che va col core, e col corpo dimora. 

Three hundred years later, sign-posts were still as 
rare as unicorn-horns. One mile north of Rimini, 
where the road forked, stood a chapel between the 



294 "Touring in 1600 

two turnings, on one side of it written, "La Strada 
di Ravenna," on the other, "La Strada di Bo- 
logna " ; and the roads round Freiburg were planted 
with trees to mark the way, for the benefit of citi- 
zens, however, rather than of strangers, because 
of the mouths of the silver mines which would 
otherwise have been man-traps. Something of 
the kind, too, was put up in Holland when snow 
hid the roads. More to the point will it be to 
quote John Smith's account of his escape from 
Tartary, and how he found pictorial sign-posts at 
cross-roads, the way to Christian Muscovy being 
indicated by the sign of the Cross; to Crim Tar- 
tary by a half-moon; while a black man with 
white spots meant Persia; a sun, China; and minor 
princes' territories were pointed out by the em- 
blems they had adopted. But these were really 
out of Europe and those of Freiburg and Holland 
outlined the road rather than indicated directions, 
as did the poles erected on the Col di Tenda 
Alpine-pass for a mile together, each pole a spear's 
length from the next. The Simplon and Mt. Cenis 
passes were thus marked out also — when the 
poles had not been blown flat by the wind. 

But then, crossing the Alps alone was practi- 
cally unknown, although only on the Mt. Cenis 
route were professional guides employed as a 
matter of course. These guides had their own 
special name, "marrons" and a special function, 
to " ramasser" the traveller on his way to France, 



A SIGN-POST 

From the 1570 edition of Barclay's translation of Brandt's "Ship 
oj Fools." 

" The hand,- whiche men unto a trosse do nayle 
Shewyth the way ofte to u man wdndrynge 
Which by the same I;is right way ran natfayle." 



On the Road 295 

down the slope between the summit of the pass 
and Lanslebourg, when it was covered with frozen 
snow. The traveller took his seat in a rush-seated 
chair on runners; one "marron" in front and 
one behind. The one in front had a strap round 
his chest fastened to the chair; he took a few 
steps, and the chair did the rest; if the direction 
became amiss or the pace too furious, the "mar- 
ron" behind the chair guided or checked it with 
an alpenstock. The distance was a league; the 
time fifteen minutes. Going towards Italy you 
would have found fifty or sixty persons coming to 
meet you at Lanslebourg, hat in hand, offering 
their services as "marrons" or as horse-owners. 
Dismounting, one would have held the bridle, one 
the stirrup, one yourself. Two or three struggle 
for the privilege of taking your horse to the stable 
and your trunk to your room, but the latter priv- 
ilege is not one to be granted lightly; it was not in 
sound only that "marron" resembled "larron." 
The traveller's own horse was sent on after being 
shod with calkins, and he himself followed in one 
of the sledges, used in ascents, litter-fashion, by 
four "marrons," who carried it, two at a time, turn 
and turn about; glasses to protect the eyes from 
the snow-light formed part of the stock-in-trade 
of the local pedlars. 

At the top would be found "La Chapelle des 
Transis," the wayfarers' mortuary, not empty 
probably; in March 1578 it contained fifteen 



296 Touring in 1600 

bodies. 5 After heavy snowfalls the monks of the 
neighbouring hospice of St. Nicolas used to send 
out search parties; corpses discovered were ex- 
amined for proofs of orthodoxy, beads, for in- 
stance, failing which the bodies were left to the 
beasts of prey. 

During this period the Mt. Cenis route came 
to be used more exclusively for passing between 
France and Italy than had previously been the 
case, doubtless as a result of the transference of 
the capital of Savoy from Chambery to Turin in 
1559, between which towns this route was the 
most direct. Yet notwithstanding that travellers 
note here, and here alone, that the population on 
either side of the pass had no other means of live- 
lihood than by ministering to travellers, the most 
frequented route must be considered the Brenner. 
It was the only one which wheeled traffic could 
pass, though even there the waggon had to be 
kept from falling off the road "by force of men's 
shoulders," according to Moryson. 

Of the experiences to be met with in crossing 
an Alpine pass other than the Brenner, there is no 
better account than that which the Infanta Clara 
Eugenia wrote home concerning the St. Gothard. 
Even before reaching Bellinzona the luggage carts 
had to be exchanged for mules. And at Bellin- 
zona, too, she notes that there was not a woman 
without an enormous goitre; and, indeed, the fre- 
quency with which travellers remark on the num- 



On the Road 297 

ber of those afflicted in this way leaves no doubt 
but that the disease was far more prevalent then 
than now. It was generally accepted that the 
cause lay in the water, but one old resident, at 
least, disbelieved this, since he had one himself, 
although, as he told a tourist, he had never drunk 
water in his life. The worst of the Infanta's jour- 
ney occupied the four days after leaving Bellin- 
zona ; the way so narrow that a horse could scarcely 
walk and the litters had continually to be taken 
off the mules and transferred to men. This nar- 
row path, of course, lay always with the moun- 
tain-side high above it and a precipice and a river 
below. The ladies' litters were by no means ac- 
cording to royal standards; just four poles and a 
linen seat, from which the royal legs dangled; but 
she rode most of the way, feeling no fear of any- 
thing but the "snow-bridges," two of which had 
to be crossed. On the farther side there was the 
"Devil's Bridge" to pass also, or, as she names it, 
"Hell Bridge"; which now does not even exist; 
twenty paces long above the Reuss, so far above 
that the river was out of sight, although the rush 
of it resounded so loudly that she could not hear 
herself speak. The whole road had been specially 
prepared for her passage, and among the prepa- 
rations was the erecting of railings along "Hell 
Bridge"; in the ordinary way there were none, 
the wind being so strong in the narrow gorge as 
always to sweep them away very soon. He who 



298 Touring in 1600 

passed by the St. Gothard under ordinary condi- 
tions, and the Furka, too, wore gloves and boots 
studded with nails to preserve his hold; and the 
average Alpine bridge answered to the description 
which Cellini gives of those he found on the Sim- 
plon route, a few tree-trunks laid down. Another 
Italian going home that way says the last bridge 
was thirty feet by two and bent in the middle; he 
crossed it at night, coming as it did among the 
"last four leagues "(?) between the summit and 
Domodossola, all of which he and his traversed in 
pitch-darkness among precipices, the foremost 
calling at intervals "Ave Maria" and the hind- 
most answering "Gratia plena." 

Most travellers rode horses or mules where they 
could, and led, or crawled with them, the rest of 
the way; but sledges were also in use, in which 
case, Moryson was told, "it sometimes happens 
the sledge whereon the passenger sits is cast out 
of the way and hangs down in a most deep val- 
ley with the passenger's head downward. Woe be 
to him, then, if he let his hold go, or the harness 
tying the sledge to the horse should break." Mory- 
son himself had only passed by the Bernina and 
the Brenner, the former of which seems to have 
ranked third in order of popularity in spite of 
the track being no more than a yard wide in 
places. The Splugen was used as often, perhaps, 
but when the two St. Bernards and the Gemmi 
have been added to the list, there is an end of those 



On the Road 299 

frequented by tourists. One used the San Marco 
and Sir Henry Wotton another, which cannot now 
be identified, when the ordinary ones were shut 
against him by plague. But for an instance of 
some one keeping to the coast between France 
and Italy, it seems necessary to go back to Beatis 
in 15 18, a man whose narrative is obviously trust- 
worthy; yet, after mentioning that it was so dan- 
gerous that few rode, he adds what may sound in- 
credible except in his own words. "Ben vero che 
questo Camino e di sorte Che in tale giornata di 
XV miglia solamente le bestie se besognarno fer- 
rare quactro et cinque volte." For all practical 
purposes, moreover, the mountains near Grenoble 
must be considered as part of the Alps, lying, as 
they did, across the route of all who crossed Mt. 
Cenis, and being no less fearful than any of the 
Alpine passes themselves. At one point, nearest 
Aiguebelette, horses and mules were specially 
trained for the ascent and descent, holes having 
been cut in the rock which made the way more 
practicable for animals accustomed to them, but 
almost impossible to any others, unless riderless. 
Elsewhere, wherever mountains have to be tra- 
versed, similar conditions prevailed. Near Spalato, 
it is true, the path was railed in some distance, the 
only railings of the kind in Europe, apparently; 
but near Mt. Olympus one looked over the edge 
of the precipice he had to ride along and saw 
carcasses of horses, caught as they fell, or fallen, to 



3°o Touring in 1600 

warn him to be careful. Says one who knew both, 
the road over Pen-maen-mawr in these days was 
more fearful than any Alpine way. As for Spain, 
there were quite a number of main roads which 
allowed nothing more than single file here and 
there: the pass into Castile on the road from Ba- 
yonne, for instance, and another between Granada 
and Cartagena, on entering which it was custom- 
ary for travellers to tighten their belts and say 
an "Ave Maria" for those who had lost their 
lives thereabouts. Above San Sebastian ten men 
might hold the road against an army and no beasts 
but mules could be trusted on it, nor on the pass 
from France into Aragon, so steep that no man was 
safe there; while south of Santander, according to 
Sir Richard Wynn, for two leagues the road was 
two feet broad and one hundred perpendicular 
fathoms above the river. 

Neither were the efforts thus entailed bright- 
ened by the idea of mountaineering as a form of 
pleasure. Probably the only recorded climb un- 
dertaken during this period with no other object 
than that of getting to the top is the ascent of " Les 
Jumelles," the highest peak near Pau, an ascent 
known to us through De Thou. One M. de Candale 
started at four o'clock one May morning in the 
first half of the sixteenth century. Before half- 
way was reached, his younger companions were on 
the way down; they had come in their shirts and 
found the cold too much for them ; M. de Candale 



On the Road 301 

was wearing a fur coat. At half-way the last trace 
of a human being was left behind, but he and some 
peasants reached the top with the help of ladders 
and grappling-irons and took measurements. It 
is characteristic enough of the age that De Thou's 
comments on the calculated height are a compari- 
son with the reckonings of Apuleius and Plutarch 
concerning Olympus, which they considered the 
highest mountain in the world. Mediaeval opin- 
ion put Mt. Sinai first, probably because that was 
the only mountain a mediaeval Christian ever 
tried to get to the top of, a process of reasoning 
which may be traced in the guesses of these trav- 
ellers, and in local opinion, as to which was the 
highest of the Alps; it is always one of those 
past which they endeavoured to make their way, 
St. Gothard or St. Bernard, for which they claim 
preeminence. Another fashion of reckoning is to 
calculate, not perpendicularly, but according to 
the apparent length of the way, which makes Mt. 
Quarantana "six miles high"; while one traveller 
has a unit of measurement entirely his own, a 
mountain being to him so many "towers" high, 
the tower in question being the belfry of Malines, 
his native place. 

There was, nevertheless, one piece of moun- 
taineering that was continually being done under 
the guise of a pilgrimage, the ascent of the Roche 
Melon, near Mt. Cenis, or, as it is termed in full 
as late as 1574, 6 Roche Rommelon; the Latin 



302 "Touring in 1600 

name had been Mons Romuleus. Of the origin 
of this pilgrimage and the reason for building a 
chapel to Our Lady on the summit, nothing has 
been ascertained beyond what may be read to-day 
in the cathedral at Susa, where is still to be seen, 7 
though unmentioned by Baedeker, a triptych re- 
presenting a Madonna and Child, St. George, 
St. James, and a kneeling warrior, with an inscrip- 
tion to the effect that one Bonifacio Rotario of 
Asti "brought me [i. e. the triptych] hither in hon- 
our of our Blessed Lord and our Lady on Sep- 
tember 1, 1358." The word "hither" refers to the 
summit 'of this Roche Melon, to which the picture 
is still carried up every year. 8 In 1588 Villamont 
made the ascent, which was only practicable in 
August, with spikes on his feet and hooks fastened 
to his hands, and rather more assistance than a 
modern mountaineer would consider dignified. 
The feat is the more remarkable inasmuch as the 
height ( 1 1,605 feet) is more than half as high again 
as the highest point of any pass that was used 
then. 

On reaching the top, Villamont forgot all his 
terror and fatigue in the glorious view, glorious 
not for the grandeur of the scenery to him, but be- 
cause it was his first sight of Italy, "the paradise 
to gain which they willingly," as another phrases 
it, "passed through the purgatory of the Alps." 
Such was their opinion of Switzerland. They 
spoke of the Alps just as we do of the Channel — 



On the Road 303 

they had had a "good crossing," or the reverse. 
More definitely, to quote Howell's words, "the 
high and hideous Alps . . . those uncouth, huge, 
monstrous, Excrescences of Nature," productive 
of nothing useful. Few were those who were free- 
spirited enough to enjoy themselves. Of the ex- 
ceptions most notable are Tasso and the Infanta. 
The former mentions the existence of a common 
preference for scenes characterised by unbroken 
spaciousness, but for himself, he likes a varied 
view with much to catch the eye, hills, dales, and 
trees, and even, he goes on, "E, che piu, la sterilita 
e rigidezza dell' Alpi, facendone paragone alia va- 
ghezza degli altri spettacoli, suole molte fiate rius- 
cire piacevolissima." 9 The Infanta's own words 
are still more remarkable: "Yo dudo que se pu- 
diera ver mejor cosa en el mundo ni mas para ver." 
Even she, however, when going into detail, gives 
first places to the plants that were new to her and 
to the waterfalls. When, indeed, somebody else 
expresses any degree of pleasure in connection 
with the Alps, it is generally the waterfalls that 
occasion it. But there is a further exception even 
to this, and he, curiously enough, is a popular Pari- 
sian poet, St. Amant. Although he writes, in his 
"Polonaise," concerning Poland, 

On n'y voit nulle eminence 
Comme on voit en d'autres lieux ; 
Cela me charme, et je pense 
Qu'on ne peut dire tant mieux, 



304 "Touring in 1600 

he finds the characteristics of the Alps, even in 
winter, such that they 

Sont si doux a mes yeux que d'aise ils en petillent, 

and is even modern enough to speak of 

Et cet air net et sain, propre a l'esprit vital. 10 

These three have been entirely overlooked 
hitherto; the only person of this period whom the 
modern mountaineer is told to claim as his spirit- 
ual brother is the botanist Conrad Gesner; but 
in claiming him they claim too much — for them- 
selves. It is true that Gesner does write " that he 
never lets a year go by without climbing one or 
more of the Alps for exercise and pleasure as well 
as for botany; and that "whoever does not con- 
sider towering mountains preeminently worthy 
of more than ordinary attention is, to my mind, 
an enemy of Nature." But he goes on to show 
that the Alps meant far more to him than this 
much would prove. He looked on them as an 
epitome of all Nature's habits and experiments, 
the key to all Nature's secrets, to geology in the 
fullest sense of the word, structural, historical, 
dynamical; and that to a greater extent than is 
apparent at first sight, inasmuch as problems now 
treated as solved then belonged to dreamland and 
problems which seemed soluble there if anywhere 
are now known to be better studied elsewhere; 
the internal temperature of the earth, for instance, 
since it was not recognized in Gesner's day that 



On the Road 305 

there was any difference in kind between moun- 
tains and volcanoes. 

The attitude of the average man of Gesner's 
time towards the Alps, however, is but the most 
striking instance of a general attitude towards 
Nature which circumstances at that time enforced 
and which different circumstances have since 
abolished. Further, of all classes of men, it was 
the tourists who were most oppressed by the cir- 
cumstances of the past, and it is the tourists who 
get the greatest benefits from the changed circum- 
stances of to-day. Further still, the difference was, 
and is, most noticeable by the tourist when on the 
road. In other words, the absence of enjoyment 
of the sterner aspects of Nature was the result of 
their having far more of Nature than an average 
man can stand. The growth of the size of towns 
has, so to speak, set a premium on Nature, just 
as it has, during the past century, created the 
custom of taking annual holidays; while the suc- 
cessive minimising of the dangers, the discom- 
forts, and of so many of the lesser difficulties of 
travel has provided the traveller with contrast 
where once upon a time was none, and leaves him 
free to find pleasure (sometimes, perhaps, forces 
him to look for it to avoid being bored), where in 
1600 all spelt pain and foreboding. This differ- 
ence of sentiment culminated then, as it culmin- 
ates now, when the tourist found himself among 
the Alps. There, above other places, were his 



3°6 "Touring in 1600 

faculties narrowed by fear and what remained of 
them wholly concentrated on self-preservation, 
until enjoyment was out of the question. 

As to the change of attitude, it is usually cred- 
ited to Rousseau, but was in progress before his 
influence began to be felt; 12 and if the subsequent 
development of the idea is considered, the credit 
must surely be shared by Napoleon, as to whose 
greatness there is no more conclusive evidence 
than that of his Alpine roads. Before these were 
carried out, men considered themselves at the 
mercy of the Alps ; he first, and he alone, put the 
Alps at the service of men, and in so doing set 
free men's sense of beauty when in their midst. 

But here, as always when writing about the 
prevalence or absence of a point of view, some 
reminder should be added as to the effect of lit- 
erary conventions in exaggerating both the one 
and the other; that is to say, that in the former 
case it will frequently be expressed when it is little 
felt, and in the latter it will frequently be felt 
when not expressed. Even as to that binding of 
the faculties just alluded to, there is the very de- 
finite exception of the Infanta, who was not too 
preoccupied to ask questions, thereby learning 
that that peak had not been bare of snow for four 
hundred years and that this pinnacle was solid 
emerald; being considered inaccessible, cannon 
had not long before been brought up to shoot bits 
off, but without success. 



On the Road 3°7 

Nevertheless, their turn of mind as regards Na- 
ture in general needs some other illustration than 
from negative evidence alone, or, among positive 
evidence, from so exceptional a feature as moun- 
tain scenery. This may be best taken from their 
use of the word "desert." A typical instance is in 
a sentence from Peter Mundy, "the way being 
faire and plaine, though desert and full of woods." 
Six times in "As You Like It" is the forest of 
Arden termed a desert: — 

. . . this desert inaccessible 
Under the shade of melancholy boughs. 

"Desert" to them meant deserted by men, and 
through forests they passed, as often as not, sword 
in hand. To quote St. Amant's " Polonaise " 
again: — 

Une taciturne horreur 

En augmente le terreur, 

Et la noire solitude 

Qui dort en ces bois espais 

Fait qu'avec inquietude 

On y voit leur triste paix. 

La le maistre et le valet 
Roulent, main au pistolet; 
On regarde si le glaive 
S'offre a quitter le fourreau, 
Et des qu'un zephir se leve 
On fremit sur le carreau. 

And yet, if a journey was a " fragment of hell," 



3o8 "Touring in 1600 

it is comforting to meet some very merry devils by 
the way. Quevedo, 13 for one, took his troubles 
lightly. Getting out of a bed in which his legs had 
been hanging over the end, he and three others 
left Linares for Condado in a conveyance drawn 
by ten mules. The road, he says, might have been 
the road to salvation, so narrow was it, so full of 
troubles, a purgatory in little. One hill seemed to 
be reserved for mule-hunting when the carriage 
had stuck in the mud. 

It was February, too; February at its worst. 
On smaller provocation men have retired to mad- 
houses. It seemed like sleeping in the coach ; those 
who tried to walk pulled their legs out from where 
they had planted them without hose or shoes ; one 
called out, " You down there, who 's pulling off my 
boots ? " After playing at dying for four hours, men 
arrived to release them from imprisonment, except 
one whose litter had given way and who was too 
full of bruises to move, and a clergyman who was 
missing altogether, the latest news of whom is that 
men were going round about the marshes calling 
out his name. 

Dallam, too, has a tale to tell. His companions 
and himself, passing through Thrace, took a house 
to spend the night in, a two-roomed house, one 
room above the other. The lower was used as a 
cellar; a ladder outside led up to a balcony, the 
balcony to a door, the door to their sleeping room, 
which was lighted by one small hole. Now, that 



On the Road 309 

evening they had gone for a walk and seen "divers 
sorts of vermin of which we have not the like in 
England," and, remembering that they had no- 
thing but boards to lie on, gathered plenty of a 
thick soft moss for pillows. But half an hour after 
laying their heads down, they discovered that 
these pillows harboured one more sort of vermin 
"the which did bite far worse than fleas," with the 
result that even when the pillows had been thrown 
away and the room swept, still they could n't go 
to sleep. So Mr. Glover (afterwards Sir Thomas 
Glover), who had dwelt long in the country, told 
them stories about the native vermin, "snakes, 
adders, and sarpentes." Gradually some dropped 
off to sleep; the others ceased talking. But one 
Mr. Baylye had occasion to leave the room; the 
door was narrow, the wind strong; "so that when 
he came into the gallery, the wind blew the garter 
round about his leg; it was a great silk garter and 
by the force of the wind it fettered his legs both 
fast together. Our talk a little before of adders, 
snakes, and sarpentes was yet in his remembrance 
and the place near where much vermin was. He 
thought they swarmed about him, but about his 
legs he thought he was sure of a sarpente, so that, 
suddenly, he cried out with all the voice he had, 
*A sarpente, a sarpente, a sarpente,' and was so 
frighted he could not find the door to get in, but 
made a great bustling and noise in the gallery. 
We that were in the house did think that he said, 



3 io Touring in 1600 

'Assaulted, assaulted,' for before night we doubted 
that some treachery would happen unto us in that 
town. There was fifteen of us in the room — and 
it was but a little room. Every man took his 
sword in his hand, one ready to spoil another, not 
any one knowing the cause. One that could not 
find his sword, got to the chimney and trying to 
climb up, down fell a part of the chimney on his 
head ; another that was suddenly awakened, struck 
about him with his sword and beat down the shelf 
and broke the pitchers and platters which stood 
thereon, the room being very dark, for it was 
about midnight. Our Janizary, who should have 
been our guard and have protected us from all 
dangers, took up a loose board whereon he lay, 
and slipped down into the vault. As we were all 
thus amazed, at the last Mr. Baylye found the 
way in at the door. When Mr. Glover saw him, 
he said, 'How now, man, what is the matter, who 
do you see?' Mr. Baylye was even breathless 
with fear, crying out and struggling to get in at 
the door; at last he said, 'A sarpente, a sarpente,' 
troubled him. When Mr. Glover heard him say 
so, he went to the door, and there he found Mr. 
Baylye's garter ready to be carried away with the 
wind." 

Another who was more frightened than hurt 
was the Jesuit Possevino, on his way to Muscovy. 
Tired out* with a day on the main road thither 
from Poland, spent handling the axe to clear the 



On the Road 3" 

road of vegetation, dragging the waggons by hand, 
sometimes carrying them on their shoulders, he 
and his lay down to sleep (in the rain) and were 
kept awake by Cossacks in among the trees imi- 
tating the sounds of wild beasts to terrify them. 
Pleasanter was it for those in Hungary, where the 
custom was, when strangers came in sight, to bake 
some bread fresh in the cinders that served as 
ovens, and send it to their lodgings by the young- 
est and prettiest girls, who gathered themselves 
into a ring and danced round the visitors singing. 
Yet another picture is of a Frenchman whose 
way lay through the Ardennes in time of war; he 
was journeying on business. Tales were plenti- 
ful of bands of peasants in the forests, killing 
passers-by without distinction. One evening he 
makes his escape from four men, takes a by-road 
where the highroad was in particularly bad re- 
pute; snow begins to fall, the wind is dead against 
him; his by-road leads him cross-country, which 
founders his horse; he sits down on a tree-trunk, 
back to the wind, and thinks how his brother and 
four sisters are providing him with nephews and 
nieces who will never give a guess at the troubles 
he has gone through in making a fortune, but 
will take it for granted that they are to have a 
share of it. The nephews, perhaps, would have 
told him that it was lucky for him he was in the 
Ardennes and not outside St. Malo at so late 
an hour, with the twelve or twenty-four, which- 



3i2 Touring in 1600 

ever it was, 14 savage English dogs waiting for him, 
who were sent out every night with their keeper 
to guard the town, "killing and tearing any living 
creature they encounter withal." In 1627 a man 
did die so. Even without the dogs, at St. Malo 
or anywhere else, it was troublesome, or worse, to 
arrive late. Gates were closed, and kept closed, 
and this applied, of course, to seafarers as well; 
one tourist making for Monaco, another for Genoa, 
had for that reason to sleep out in an open boat. 
In towns where a strict "Reformed" sect had 
the upper hand, this waiting might have to be 
done in daytime also; gates as well as shops being 
shut during sermon-time. But even supposing he 
found means to enter at night, it might be wiser 
not to take the offer, seeing that he would find 
himself wandering about in a pitch-dark maze of 
dirty alleys during the hours when it was permis- 
sible for the inhabitants to throw "slops" out of 
window. 



BENIGHTED ' SIGHT '-SEERS 

From Josse de Damhouder 's "Praxis Re rum Critninalimn," 1554. 



CHAPTER VIII 



THE PURSE 



A traveller! by my faith, you have great reason to be sad: I 
fear you have sold your own lands to see other men's. 

As You Like It (about 1599). 

THE cost of travelling divides itself into 
two kinds; direct and indirect: that is, 
into the outlay which the traveller must 
reckon on and that which he has to reckon with. 
The first kind, the necessities, consists of fares, 
food, lodging, passports, tolls, etc., together with 
loss by exchange of money or by charges on re- 
mittances. The second kind, the possibilities, in- 
cludes loss by robbery, by war, by disease, lack 
of legal privileges, ignorance of local custom, and 
such like eventualities in so far as any one was lia- 
ble to suifer from them through being a stranger 
in a strange land. 

But before considering the most elementary 
necessaries, some working arrangement must be 
established about translating payments into terms 
of English money of the present day. In the first 
place, between 1542 and 1642 money fell from 
about nine times its present value to about five 
times. Dates must therefore be found within 
which the multiplication figure must become 
successively nine, eight, seven, six. Suppose the 



3 H ^Touring in 1600 

first figure be taken up to 1556, when the States 
General met at Brussels to deal with Philip IPs 
debt; the second figure thence to 1589, the year 
when the failure of the Spanish Armada began to 
tell on economics; seven from 1589 to 161 2, at 
which date the bankruptcy of the Welser firm af- 
fected all Europe; and six thenceforward. If these 
are reasonable fictions, it is the utmost that can 
be achieved ; in so far as they are not, the definite- 
ness of the system makes correction of it easier. 
Amounts arrived at by these reckonings are given 
in square brackets. Usually, however, the original 
amounts have first to be translated out of conti- 
nental coinage into contemporary English, a pro- 
cess which involves a series of comparisons too 
long to be tabulated here, and often, even then, 
needing modification as a result of the context in 
which the particular statement occurs. This is 
mentioned only as indicating a fresh source of 
uncertainty, and possibly of error. A third factor 
in these amounts as here given is as reliable as the 
two former factors are unreliable; every original 
amount represents an actual transaction by a 
traveller between 1542 and 1642, except where 
otherwise stated. 

Necessities and possibilities are sometimes 
found considered jointly in general estimates. 
Sir Philip Sidney considered his brother should 
have two hundred pounds a year allowed him for 
travelling. This was in 1578, and he would be 



The Purse 315 

reckoning according to the highest standard that 
a young Englishman would have a use for. 

Dallington, a guide-book writer, speaking for 
Englishmen in France in 1598, estimates eighty 
pounds a year; if one servant is taken and riding- 
lessons required, one hundred and fifty pounds; 
over two hundred pounds is excessive; while an- 
other, Cleland, in his "Institution of a Young 
Nobleman" (1607) considers two hundred pounds 
a year enough for four persons. Howell (1642) 
says three hundred pounds for the youngster at 
Paris, with fifty pounds each in addition for a 
cook, a valet, and a page; but then Howell had 
acted as tutor and no doubt hoped to do so again 
as soon as he could get free from the Fleet Prison, 
where he lay when his pamphlet was published. 
Under these circumstances he was likely to be 
considering his own pocket rather than the fa- 
ther's. Nevertheless, two of the brothers Coligny 
[Henri IPs courtiers], when planning a year's 
tour through Italy in 1546, were said to have 
put aside fourteen thousand scudi [£30,000] for 
expenses; which annoyed their uncle. 1 But within 
a year or two of this estimate, Evelyn was travel- 
ling farther afield than Paris, — he stayed seven 
months in Rome alone, — keeping one servant 
throughout, sometimes two, learning under sev- 
eral masters, and making costly and extensive 
purchases, on less than three hundred pounds 
annually. Of Sir Richard Fanshawe, again, his 



3 16 Touring in 1600 

wife records that "during some years of travel" 
(less than seven, for certain) " he had spent a con- 
siderable part of his stock"; this stock consisted 
of what his parents had bequeathed him, fifteen 
hundred pounds, and fifty pounds a year: his 
travel lay mainly in France and Spain previous 
to 1630. 

Fynes Moryson, too, gives his expenditure as 
from fifty to sixty pounds a year, which included 
the cost of two journeys, one in spring, one in 
autumn. He was accustomed to the best standard 
of living at home, but his income was hardly ade- 
quate to his social position and by temperament 
he was a temperate and adaptable man; more 
so, to say the least, than the son of Davison, 
the Secretary of State whom Queen Elizabeth 
made the scapegoat for the death of Queen Mary 
Stewart. 

Father Davison had been told that one hun- 
dred marks would suffice for his boy abroad each 
year, and, consequently, in sending the latter to 
Italy in 1595 with a tutor, and a servant, allowed 
him treble that amount, one hundred pounds. 
The tutor writes, "I never endured such slavery 
in my life to save money"; if Mr. Davison does 
not see his way to changing his mind about the 
one hundred pounds a year, will he kindly find 
another tutor? As to the "frugal travellers" 
whose travelling costs them no more than the one 
hundred marks a year, he does not wish to deny 



The Purse 317 

it; in fact, he knows such men; and very sorry he 
is for those who have lent them the rest they have 
spent. 

From all this one may conclude that the equiva- 
lent of four hundred pounds a year was the mini- 
mum for respectable travelling and that the Aver- 
age Tourist would certainly need at least half as 
much again. But this is assuming that all who were 
respectable, or above the need to be so, paid all 
their own expenses, which was far from being the 
case. There were plenty of rich travellers who 
defrayed all charges for a large following. Land- 
graf Ludwig II of Hessen-Darmstadt 2 even paid 
a certain knight to accompany him, six hundred 
florins [£6oo] down and fifty florins a month, 
besides expenses and clothes. So when Cardinal 
Luigi d'Aragona toured Europe, starting May 9, 
15 17, and arriving home March 16, 15 18, and 
spent about fifteen thousand ducats [£35,000] 
meantime, in which "eating and drinking were 
the least costly items," we may conclude that the 
thirty-five persons he took with him, and the forty- 
five he brought back, received at least expenses. 
Another churchman, Johann Gottfried von Asch- 
hausen, bishop of Wurzburg, left Strassburg in 
161 2 with a retinue of one hundred and thirty, 
twenty-one of whom were young men of high 
birth. Before he passed out of Germany this 
number was increased by fifty more. He was 
away a year in Italy, which cost him thirty- 



3 1 8 Touring in 1600 

two thousand seven hundred and fifty-four scudi 
[£40, 000]. 3 

But since he went as the Emperor's ambassa- 
dor, this is rather a fresh example of how travel- 
ling was facilitated by embassies. For among the 
advantages of various kinds that rendered accom- 
panying the journeyings of diplomatists the best 
means of seeing the world, the economical advan- 
tages were as important as any. It by no means 
followed, however, that anything but board and 
lodging were provided by him; in the detailed ac- 
counts of Sir G. Chaworth regarding his special 
embassy to Brussels is no mention of outlay on 
anything but necessaries. On the other hand, we 
find another English ambassador giving one hun- 
dred pounds apiece to the gentlemen who were 
to accompany him, to provide their outfit. 4 In 
any case, this expedient extended only as far as 
the ambassador went, a specially important limit- 
ation for Englishmen of Queen Elizabeth's day, 
since she had no ambassador at Venice throughout 
her reign; and even when James I sent one thither 
he was, during his first term of office, the only 
English ambassador in Italy. Bearing this in 
mind, and turning to other methods whereby the 
Average Tourist from England might reduce his 
expenditure, we come upon what is, perhaps, the 
most remarkable fact of the time in regard to the 
kind, and the extent, of the usefulness with which 
travel was credited, namely, that Queen Elizabeth 



The Purse 319 

subsidised it. It is obvious from the life-stories 
of all those who served her that they were treated 
with extreme stinginess and that employment by 
the government meant heavy expense instead of 
salaries; and yet, as to travel, these are the words 
of Bacon, who had excellent means of knowing the 
facts: "There was a constant course held, that 
by the advice of the secretaries, or some principal 
councillor, there was always sent forth into the 
parts beyond the seas some young men of whom 
good hopes were conceived of their towardliness, 
to be trained up and made fit for such public em- 
ployments and to learn the languages. This was 
at the charge of the Queen, which was not much, 
for they travelled but as private gentlemen." B 
Ecclesiastics, it goes almost without saying, 
received special terms, mainly in the shape of free 
lodging at religious houses, although the opinion of 
one abbe ought not to go unrecorded, — "avoid 
monasteries," because the charities expected 
amounted to more than inn-charges. This cer- 
tainly did not apply to Muscovy, where, if a mon- 
astery could be found, it undoubtedly did mean 
free board and lodging for the three days, the 
usual limit of time, universally, for claimers of 
charity. But what with monasteries and special 
foundations there must have been far more really 
free accommodation than is apparent from tourist- 
books, written as the latter almost entirely are by 
the class that paid its way. Even apart from the 



320 Touring in 1600 

above there were incidents such as one recorded 
in 1650, of eight thousand pilgrims to Rome from 
Spain being fed and housed for three days at 
Naples at the expense of the Spanish viceroy- 
there. At Compostella, too, for two reals [7s. 6d.] 
could be obtained a parchment document with a 
cardinal's seal attached, recommending the bearer 
for alms as one who was on his way to other places 
of pilgrimage; and in Italy not even that much 
was needed, inasmuch as the natives were then so 
averse to begging that foreigners who had no such 
scruples found little difficulty in traversing it at 
next to no cost. 

Where a begging-license was necessary, that 
could easily be obtained also by being, or pre- 
tending to be, a student. Loyola lived in term- 
time at Paris on what he gained by begging at 
fairs in Flanders and England during holidays. 
Another useful option open to students, of what- 
ever social position, was the exemption from local 
tolls, frequently a privilege belonging to all who 
had matriculated at the university of the district; 
the graduate of Padua, for instance, was exempt 
throughout Venetian territory. It so happened 
that one of these tourists 6 was elected rector of 
Bologna University during his stay there in 1575, 
and that during his term of office some students 
were forced to pay taxes. He and the managing 
body at once appealed to the Pope, who not 
only confirmed, but extended, the immunities. 



The Purse 321 

In Italy the tolls were so oppressive that the 
matriculation fees, twenty lire [£5] at Padua, 
twelve at Bologna, were soon made good, even 
supposing them to have been paid; at Bologna, at 
least, matriculation could be obtained for nothing 
by applying in forma pauperis. The examination 
was no bar worth mentioning. In Germany, 
moreover, according to Moryson, the tenancy of 
a house often carried with it the obligation to 
board and lodge a student free. Another traveller 
who economised thoroughly was Sastrow, who, 
on reaching Rome, took service at the hospital of 
Santa Brigitta, cooked, washed-up, made the beds, 
and received the equivalent of 2s. 6d. a month, 
while Jacques Callot, the artist, when he ran 
away from home, took the way to Italy in the 
company of those gypsies who appear in those 
sketches of his which form one of the most vivid 
memorials of the travelling life of the time. Yet 
with all these opportunities which presented 
themselves to the needy, we are told that Turkey 
was the only country of Europe where poverty 
was no bar to travel. 

Outside Europe fresh estimates have to be 
quoted. The fare to Jaffa and back by the pil- 
grim-galley varied from fifty to sixty ducats [say 
£100]: this included food. Additional expenses 
brought the ordinary cost of a visit to Jerusalem 
from Venice under these earlier conditions up to 
three or four hundred pounds in present-day 



322 'Touring in 1600 

values. This, of course, omits the expenses of 
the pilgrim between his home and Venice. The 
minimum recorded cost for this period is repre- 
sented by the two hundred and twenty crowns 
[£350] spent by one Switzer in thirty weeks, and 
two hundred and twenty-eight crowns spent by 
another, a barber, in eleven months (1583-84), 7 
of which times only about three months, in each 
case, was taken up by the voyage from Venice to 
Jerusalem and back, the remainder being devoted 
to Italy. The pilgrimage may be considered as 
accounting for but little more than two hundred 
pounds of the expenditure of each. Many went, 
moreover, who never possessed this much, since it 
was common for one man to go as deputy for sev- 
eral, who jointly defrayed his expenses ; and it was 
also a common form of charity for rich pilgrims 
to pay for poor ones. Later, in fact, they were 
often forced to do so by the Turks when the latter 
had reduced to beggary those who had come away 
with too little, which led to there arising a cus- 
tom among pilgrims of showing each other their 
money; if one refused, the others avoided his com- 
pany to escape the possibility of being compelled 
to pay for him. 

With the cessation of the pilgrim-galley the 
cost of the pilgrimage doubled itself, what with 
the increased length of the journey due to a round- 
about way having to be taken, and, still more, to 
its increased duration, owing to the uncertainty; 



The Purse 323 

especially as every day additional brought its 
own additional risks and extortions. Moryson 
and his brother spent four hundred and eighty 
pounds [nearly, if not quite, £3000]. 

Certain circumstances raised the cost to him 
above the average, and he was away more than a 
year and a half, whereas the journey would be 
done within the year ordinarily. On the other 
hand, as his brother died near Aleppo, the return- 
journey represents the expenditure of one man 
instead of two. How a thrifty man who was used 
to roughing it would be forced to spend the equiv- 
alent of one thousand pounds or more on a jour- 
ney that would nowadays cost him about sixty- 
five pounds is partly explained by the exactions 
of the Turks. When Sandys was at Jerusalem the 
monks of S. Salvatore had just been compelled 
to pay eight hundred dollars [£900] for an im- 
aginary oifence. When Lithgow arrived late one 
night after the gates had been shut, the friars 
let down food to him over the wall; the Turks, 
being informed of this, insisted they must have 
been importing weapons, and inflicted another 
fine, one hundred piasters [£125]. It is not sur- 
prising, then, that with expenses like these, and 
ordinary expenses to match, the monks expected 
sums from the pilgrims that seem at first sight 
outrageous. To Lithgow they made a definite 
charge of a piaster [£i 10s.] a day for board and 
lodging alone; but their general custom was to 



324 Touring in 1600 

throw themselves on the traveller's generosity 
and grumble at the result. 

Neither did the Franks suffer from indirect 
exactions only. The price for entrance to the 
Church of the Holy Sepulchre went on increasing, 
from nothing at all in the fourteenth century to 
four zecchini [£io] in 1606. Some mention fees 
of four times that amount, but this higher sum 
included the toll at the city gate, the two being 
collected simultaneously and so mistaken for one 
charge: the Turks farmed the revenue from the 
Holy Sepulchre for eight thousand sultanons [over 
£19,000], says Sandys. Extras were almost end- 
less, yet very few of them left any change out of 
a gold coin ; the fee for the certificate of visitation, 
without which the poorest pilgrim would not think 
of departing, was three zecchini [seven guineas], 
while the knighthood, nominally thirty zecchini, 
does not seem to have been granted for less than 
ten. The monastery servants were liable to excom- 
munication if they accepted a tip, but they gladly 
risked damnation for a zecchino, and, indeed, in- 
sisted on doing so. 

By spending not more than a week at Jeru- 
salem and that at a time which may profanely be 
termed out of the season, it was possible to see 
the sights of the city itself for the equivalent of 
£50; at any rate, that happened in 1676 ; 8 but to 
do as most Franks did, spend Easter there, and 
ten days or a fortnight, and accompany the excur- 



The Purse 325 

sions, cost nearly double that. On the journey, 
the tributes may be imagined from the fact that 
Sandys thought it worth while to pay four shariffs 
[£10] for a passport which saved a few of them; 
nothing availed against an Arab chief who sent 
to demand seven zecchini [sixteen guineas] a head, 
and then came in person to demand five more. 
Moreover, besides the special outfit to be bought, 
the charges themselves were always reckoned on 
the basis that a Frank must have heaps of money; 
from Rama to Jerusalem alone, one day's jour- 
ney, another seven zecchini had to be paid to the 
dragoman, and the same amount coming back. 

A considerable saving might be effected by 
hiring a Janizary at seven aspers [2s.] a day: his 
services more than paid for his keep ; and there 
were times when even a Frank found himself 
living at an easy rate. This happened when he 
stayed at a "fondaco," or depot of Christian 
traders, or so it may be inferred from casual re- 
marks backed up by two definite instances in 
years far* apart. The German Fiirer lived so at 
Alexandria and Cairo for the equivalent of five 
shillings a day in 1565, and in 1625 two Germans 9 
were received for two months free of all charges 
at the Venetian "fondaco" at Cairo. 

Far above all economies, however, was the sys- 
tem known as "putting-out" money — and this 
applied to travel inside, as well as outside, Chris- 
tendom. The mediaeval custom of presenting 



326 "Touring in 1600 

offerings before starting had died out; sixteenth- 
century tourists only offered prayers, and, for the 
rest, often expected to take up, at their home- 
coming, all they had left behind them with addi- 
tions, or even multiplication. They deposited, 
or "put out," money before their departure on 
that condition. The custom is said to have been 
developed in the Netherlands 10 during the first 
half of the sixteenth century out of a pilgrims' 
practice of leaving a will behind them in favour of 
a friend on the understanding that the pilgrim 
was to receive double the bequest if he came back. 
It would seem from what Moryson says that the 
custom was barely known in England till the last 
decade of the sixteenth century, and then spread 
so rapidly that it fell into disrepute, bankrupts 
employing it to reinstate themselves, and actors, 
then the scum of the populace, to gain notoriety. 
He apologises for his brother Henry doing it, who 
put out four hundred pounds to be repaid twelve 
hundred pounds if he came back from Jerusalem. 
If allusions to the practice in contemporary Eng- 
lish literature 11 can be trusted, he drove a bad 
bargain; according to them he might have ar- 
ranged for his hypothetical profit to be five hun- 
dred instead of three hundred per cent, the latter 
rate being granted against journeys to Italy. The 
only other instance known of an actual transac- 
tion of this kind was calculated to yield two thou- 
sand per cent [£io to be repaid £200]; but this 



The Purse 327 

was against a voyage to Russia, near the middle 
of the century, from London, whence only one 
ship was known to have sailed thither and re- 
turned. 

Life insurance in its present form was also 
adopted by some persons before starting for abroad ; 
but public opinion condemned every form of life 
insurance equally as immoral, and in the Nether- 
lands, France, and Genoa it was forbidden by law, 
" travel-wagers " being specially mentioned in the 
proclamations. The rate, however, is the point 
which specially concerns us here, as indicative of 
the risks of travel. At the present day, for all the 
parts of the world touched upon in this book, the 
safest insurance company will not only lay fifty to 
one that the traveller will return, in place of the 
rate then of three to five to one that he would not, 
but will further insure him against accidents at a 
lower rate than if he became a London butcher. 
The system is of interest, too, as marking the tran- 
sition from mediaeval to modern methods of insur- 
ance; from "protections" granted by the stronger 
to the weaker for a premium which took the form 
of personal service, to the capitalist's bond; the 
guarantee of redress by force being superseded by 
guarantee of reimbursement by a business man, 
because the latter had become both more feasible 
and more satisfactory. 

It is clear, then, that, given the most favourable 
circumstances, the traveller might not only make 



328 "Touring in 1600 



his journeys pay their own expenses, but might 
clear a handsome profit. Yet how far these cir- 
cumstances were made the most of is a question 
that has at present to be decided on negative evi- 
dence alone, the verdict on which must be that no 
case is made out. In leaving, therefore, the gen- 
eral estimates for details, both have to be put for- 
ward as net, subject to the mitigations already 
referred to. 

The fare from Dover to Calais was five shillings 
throughout this period. So invariable was this 
charge that when a certain boatman was sus- 
pected of being in league with the Roman Catho- 
lic seminarists in France because he conveyed 
across some ladies who were religious fugitives, he 
was considered not guilty on its being ascertained 
that he had charged them one pound each for 
the passage. 12 This five-shilling charge did not in- 
clude the cost of boarding and landing when that 
required, as so often happened, the use of small 
boats, or of porters wading out. Between Flush- 
ing and Gravesend 6s. 8d. seems to have been 
the fare. 13 

Among the reasons for the preference of travel 
by water rather than by land, one was economy. 
In the case of tolls, for example, the case has been 
exactly reversed. As locks did not exist there were 
no river-dues; but of highway-tolls plenty; more- 
over, it often cost something to cross a bridge but 
never a sou to pass under it. As for ferries, the 






A PASSENGER-BOAT FROM PADUA 

From the " Stammbuch " (1578-83)0/ Gregory Amman in the Lan- 
desbibliothek, Cassel. 



The Purse 329 

ferryman occasionally made the passengers pay 
what he pleased by collecting fares in the middle 
of the river. Yet another reason which raised the 
cost of road-travel as against river-travel lay in 
the latter affording far fewer chances to robbers, 
which also told on the direct expense by eliminat- 
ing payments to escorts. 

The contrast, of course, between horse and boat 
was much greater than between waggon and boat. 
In fact, the choice between the latter pair was 
many times a matter of comfort rather than of 
cost; the fares for both, in all normal cases but 
one where they can be exactly determined, vary- 
ing from three farthings to a penny ha'penny a 
mile. To compare this with existing railway fares 
we may strike an average and say sixpence a mile; 
but the charges will be found to approach the mini- 
mum more often on the river than in the waggon. 
A typical instance is the five stivers [2s. 6d.] on 
the nine-mile canal between Haarlem and Amster- 
dam, and the lowest, the exception just spoken 
of, is the sixteen soldi [3 s. 6d.] for the twenty- 
four miles by river and lagoon between Venice 
and Padua, recorded by Villamont in 1591, and 
by Van Buchell in 1587. One disadvantage com- 
mon to both cart and boat must not be forgotten 
— that, to profit by this relative cheapness, the 
traveller had to form one of a party; if no party 
was ready he had to wait till one collected. Sir 
Henry Wotton, to take one example out of many, 






33° Touring tn 1600 

once wanted to go by waggon from Brunswick to 
Frankfort, about one hundred and fifty miles; 
had he started-on the spot he would have started 
alone and paid at the rate of 4s. 6d. a mile of our 
money. He waited a week before two disreputable 
specimens turned up to share the expense. 

This freedom to choose one's company was a 
decided advantage for the traveller who rode, con- 
sidering that murdering was far less exclusively a 
lower-class habit than it has since become. But 
he had to pay dearly for the increased respecta- 
bility and pace. Horse-hire varied from a penny 
ha'penny to fivepence a mile, the maximum charge 
representing the cost of post-horses in France in 
the seventeenth century, the minimum the charge 
in Italy for a horse that was waiting for a return 
fare, an opportunity that might frequently be met 
with. The average was far nearer the maximum 
than the minimum rate, since it was often a case 
of post-horse or no horse, and post rates did not 
sink so very far below the French standard. Ac- 
cording to Moryson, the English charged two 
shillings a day in London, one shilling a day in 
the provinces, for other than post-horses, but he 
was a native and the charges to foreigners prob- 
ably exceeded the charges to natives throughout 
Europe in a greater degree then than now ; an 
Englishman on the way from Calais to Paris 
complains that he had to pay £2 15s. where a 
Frenchman paid but three pistoles at sixteen 



The Purse 331 

shillings and eightpence each; 14 and that is not 
an isolated grievance. In fact, as a comment on 
Moryson's remark about England, when Lionello, 
a secretary of the Venetian ambassador, went post 
to Edinburgh and back in June, 1617, besides pay- 
ing threepence a mile for each horse, he includes in 
his accounts as usual tips fourpence to the woman 
and sixpence to the horse-boy, at each stage. 15 In 
Italy, where several foreigners found the cost of 
riding less than the average, Villamont reckons 
that an ecu [two guineas] a day per horse covered 
all horse-charges, while in passing from Germany 
to Italy the best plan was to buy a horse in Ger- 
many, where three pounds would be a fair price, 
and sell it in Italy, which could be done at double 
that price. 

Travellers' evidence, however, as to horse- 
charges is less plentiful than might be expected, 
owing to what maybe called the 'vetturino' sys- 
tem. The term ' vetturino' came to be applied, 
even outside Italy, to the horse-owner or carrier 
who contracted for the whole cost of a journey, 
food, lodging, transport, tolls. Their reputation 
is best illustrated by the tale of an abbe at Loreto 
about this time, who, in confessing, included 
among his transgressions a beating inflicted on a 
'vetturino.' "Go on," said the confessor, "that 
does n't count; they 're the worst scoundrels in 
the world." Nevertheless, the method spread all 
over Europe during this period with striking rapid- 



3 3 2 Touring in 1600 

ity, though far more readily on the road than on 
the water. The advantages to the stranger were 
recognised at once, the saving of the trouble and 
the expense which accompanied repeated bargain- 
ing in a state of ignorance as to where and how to 
do it, what inns to go to, what extras to put up 
with, what the legal dues really were, etc. How- 
ever dishonest the 'vetturino' might prove, his 
victim probably paid no more to him in uninten- 
tional commission than his accomplices would have 
extorted on their own account otherwise. For the 
Lyons-Turin journey, at least, there soon came 
into use a regular formula for a written contract, a 
formula which has been preserved. 16 The system 
has its value for us, too, in enabling us to com- 
pare prices. While there are multitudes of figures 
apparently available for the purpose of reckoning 
cost, a large majority turn out to be, to use one 
of their own phrases, no more use than a wooden 
poker, the writer omitting one or more of the ne- 
cessary data. If, for instance, he mentions the hire 
of four horses, it leaves us in the dark in reckoning 
personal expenses, inasmuch as four horses may 
equally well imply two, or three, or four persons. 
So likewise, to complete an account of a waggon- 
fare, it needs to be stated whether or no it was 
what the Germans called "maul frei," that is, 
whether the coachman paid for his own food or 
not. Or again, riding was so much the rule that 
the charge which the wayfarer gives for bed and 



The Purse 333 

breakfast often includes, probably more often 
than not, the "stabulum et pabulum" for his 
horse; it is only on the rare occasions when spe- 
cific statement is made, or when a pedestrian gives 
prices, that there is any certainty about it. Now 
the vetturino's charge does away with all this un- 
certainty. Also as to whether a guide accompanied 
the party or not — another necessary which cost 
money; especially a satisfactory one, obtainable 
only, writes Sir Philip Sidney, " by much expense 
or much humbleness." 

Here again the traveller by waggon went more 
cheaply than the horseman. What with the ab- 
sence of sign-posts, the scarcity of persons to ask, 
the frequent indistinguishableness of the road 
from its margin and its surroundings, a stranger 
was practically forced to be guided. In 1648 this 
brought the cost of a journey from London to 
Dover to £1 15s. iod. 17 [say, £8]. In a town this 
applied to every one who had no friends there. 
Every single feature on which one depends nowa- 
days was absent, or, if present, present only in 
embryo, — visible street-names, printed sugges- 
tions other than historical, detailed plans, the 
wide, straight streets which allow the mystified 
to discover his whereabouts without climbing a 
church-tower. In short, what was worth seeing 
was mostly heard of only by word of mouth, and to 
find it one needed to be led there. Expenditure 
on guides reached its highest point when the Alps 



334 Touring in 1600 

were snowbound ; after a heavy fall he who wished 
to pass must wait till others had made fresh tracks 
or pay anything up to fifty crowns [£75] to have 
it done for him. 

To pass Mont Cenis cost in the ordinary way 
the equivalent of about £4 10s.; that is, about half 
what the 'vetturino' would want to take each 
one of several from Lyons to Turin — six crowns, 
which latter sum is about ten times as much as 
the second-class fare to-day. But then the journey 
takes twelve hours now and took seven days then, 
with food all the while at travellers' prices. 

The length of journeys stands out as the chief 
factor in the comparative costliness. Take a typi- 
cal case, that of the five middle-class men 18 who 
left Venice on February 20, 1655, who wasted no 
time on the way, reached England on March 29, 
and spent one hundred and twenty-five pounds. 
Reckoning this as equalling £625, this works out 
as the equivalent of £125 each for thirty-seven 
days, or £3 7s. 7d. a day. If a man left Venice now 
on February 20, he might break the journey at 
Bale, to do things comfortably, and arrive in Lon- 
don at 5.38 a. m. on February 22. Second-class 
fare would be £5 10s. 7d.; add £2 for meals and 
incidentals, £7 10s. 7d. in all, an average of £3 3s. 
a day. The other thirty-four and a half days of the 
thirty-seven his food would be paid for at home 
rates, say 2s. 6d. a day, £4 6s. 3d., which, added 
to the £7 10s. 7d., gives £11 16s. iod. Now the 



The Purse 335 

daily average of about 7s. higher in the cost of 
travel apart from food, as above represented, — 
mainly accounted for by the relative cost of horses 
and guides as against railway fares, — only comes 
to £13 in thirty-seven days. On this basis the 
journey from Venice to London two hundred and 
fifty years ago cost between nine and ten times 
as much as it would to-day, solely on account of 
the difference in speed. That the expenditure of 
these five middle-class men was very reasonable 
is easily verifiable, as, for example, by the accounts 
of Muscorno, 19 another Venetian secretary, whose 
bill for coming to England, for himself and a 
servant, comes to three hundred and two ducats 
[£385]. If there was one place where travelling 
ought to have worked out relatively cheaply, it 
was Muscovy, seeing that on the sledges a peasant 
would take a passenger fifty leagues for three or 
four crowns ; but it does not seem to have lowered 
the expenses of one Dr. Willes, whose overland 
journey thither in 1600 cost eighty pounds, in- 
cluding payments to guides. His own share may 
be reckoned as equivalent to two hundred and 
forty pounds as compared with the fifteen pounds 
the same route would cost to-day. 

Luggage would frequently entail the same fare 
as the owner, since an extra horse would be needed 
to carry a box. Leather trunks were to be pur- 
chased which might be carried in front of the rider, 
but these did not protect the contents against 



336 'Touring in 1600 

rain. As to what carriers took as free luggage and 
what as "excess," there is no evidence but that of 
one Englishman 20 who found he was entitled to five 
pounds free on the Calais-Paris road and paid ten 
shillings surcharge on the rest without comment. 
Any advice the experienced have to offer as re- 
gards reduction of luggage for economy is in view 
far less of carriage than of customs-duties. In 
Italy the exactions were severest; almost every 
day's journey would take one over some boundary 
and at every bridge there were two or three quat- 
trini [twopence] to pay; at every gate six or eight 
soldi [one shilling], besides baggage dues. Any 
article carried through Italy would cost its price 
over again in dues ; a sword, for instance, you had 
to give up at the gate, pay a man to carry it to 
the inn, where the host took care of it till your 
departure, when you had to pay again for its car- 
riage to the gate. The Papal states had the lowest 
scale of charges, yet on crossing their boundary, 
there was a giulio [3s. 6d.] to pay for the small- 
est hand-bag; and at Florence even your corpse 
would be taxed a crown [£i 10s.] if it went in or 
out of the city for burial. In Germany, where the 
burden was lighter, SirThomas Hoby, coming down 
the Rhine in 1555, paid toll at twenty-one custom- 
houses between Mainz and Herzogensbosch to 
fourteen authorities. As a rule, too, the taxes were 
farmed, which increased the tourists' sufferings 
from them, inasmuch as they were exacted with 



"The Purse 337 

greater rigour and it was the harder to get redress 
in cases of extortion, especially when, as in Poland 
and Spain, the ' farmers ' were Jews or of Jewish 
blood. Bribery, however, was often practicable, 
and where practicable, economical ; one of the best 
guides to Spain repeats concerning every custom- 
house that the traveller should say he has nothing 
to declare and tip the officials only if they take his 
word, that is, if they do not do their duty. .It is 
true there were passes to be obtained from a cen- 
tral authority, overriding the right of search, such 
as the imperial pass in Germany, and the indefi- 
nite rights of ambassadors, but how far these were 
respected seems to have been mainly a matter of 
bluff. Navagero, in Spain early in the sixteenth 
century, ambassador though he was, had to pay 
duties even on the rings on his fingers. 

Passports, for one purpose or another, may be 
said to have been as much the rule then as they 
have since become the exception; an Englishman 
must pay five shillings for leave to travel and an- 
other five shillings if he wished to take his horse 
with him. A Frenchman at Milan speaks of get- 
ting a passport, stating his destination and the 
colour of his hair; and so on. But few mention 
such expenses being entailed as does one Italian, 21 
leaving Dover in 1606. Apparently he had to pay 
for separate passports for each of his suite as well 
as himself, as these cost forty reals. The "real of 
eight" was nearly equal to five shillings English. 



338 Touring in 1600 

The captain of the vessel demanded copies which 
" cost very dear" and the harbour-keeper, further- 
more, who had exacted two giuli [six shillings], 
(each person?) on arrival, required double at de- 
parture. 

Guide-books seem to have been from two to four 
times the price of Baedekers, a minor item, but 
considerable, like food and lodging. It may seem, 
at first sight, as if food and lodging were far from 
minor items, and that truly, of course, if only the 
total expenditure is considered. But in consider- 
ing, as is being done here, relative cost only, that 
is, the cost of travel in so far as it has altered 
since three centuries ago, it has to be borne in 
mind that the average cost of food and shelter 
never alters; it is only standards of living that 
alter. If any one took the average price of meals, 
say, in Europe then and average prices now, and 
showed a difference of net cost between them, his 
calculations must either be based on misleading 
information, or else would prove that the figure 
he was multiplying with to equate values was a 
wrong one. This, of course, refers to necessaries; 
luxuries must be ruled out for two reasons: first, 
all attempts to fix a standard or strike an average 
breaks down for lack of a basis; second, they do 
not test what any one is called upon to spend but 
only how much he can spend if he is fool enough 
to try. Thus, for example, when Montaigne tells 
us that the charges at the "Vaso d'Oro" at Rome 



^The Purse 339 

would be about twenty crowns [£35] a month, we 
may conclude that if we ascertain what the aver- 
age charges would be for the same accommodation 
at a first-rate hotel to-day, it is a more reasonable 
plan to take the difference as the difference be- 
tween their money-values and ours than to accept 
a surplus in either, according to the usually ac- 
cepted multiplying figure, as defining an increase 
or decrease in hotel charges. 

Yet for all this, something remains to be said. 
A modern tourist often finds himself in the posi- 
tion of drawing his income from a locality where 
money is cheaper or dearer than in the districts 
where he is making his payments. Now, three 
hundred years ago, he would have met with these 
fluctuations more frequently and more suddenly 
than would be the case to-day; and when met 
with, they would often have been more violent. 
In so far as this was the case, so far is the rela- 
tive cost affected. The causes of these fluctua- 
tions may be divided into (1) local custom, (2) 
insufficient linking-up of supply and demand. 
Hungary may be taken as an example of the lat- 
ter, Germany of the former, cause; Poland and 
Spain of districts where social and economic forces 
jib at separate classification. In Hungary and the 
districts southeast of it the most seasoned trav- 
eller never failed to be astonished at the ideal 
natural conditions; "wheat," as Sir Thomas 
Browne's son said of Transylvania in particular 



34° "Touring in 1600 

a little later, "had no value in relation to the 
subsistence of a human being." There was no 
outlet for its products; the continual state of war 
kept commerce paralysed; Vienna had little need 
of it, Constantinople none at all; what the fer- 
tility of the soil produced so abundantly was thus 
available for local consumption only. Especially 
was this the case with products that needed no hu- 
man tending; the man who ate a whole penn'orth 
of fish risked bursting. In Germany prices ruled 
low, yet so excessive was the drunkenness, and so 
general, that it was a moral impossibility to live 
cheaply without cutting one's self off from human 
society. Supper over, for instance, the "schlaff- 
trinke" was set on the table, and whoever 
touched a drop of it had, by custom, to pay an 
even share with those who drank till morning. 

The Spanish diet, which was such a trial to the 
inside if the stranger did conform to it, was equally 
a trial to his pocket if he did not. One tried both 
ways on one day in 1670. 22 At noon he shared the 
landlord's dinner, paying a real [2s. 6d.] for vege- 
tables, dried fish, fruit; but when in the evening he 
was one of six who dined on four fowls and neck of 
mutton, his bill came to the equivalent of £1 5s. 
not including wine. Poland, on the contrary, be- 
ing the granary of Europe and exporting much 
else besides grain, rich in serf labour, and with its 
retail trade in the hands of denationalised aliens 
who were well under control, could afford to im- 



The Purse 341 

port plenty of luxuries and enjoyed abundance of 
necessaries : a goose or a pig for the equivalent of 
is. 6d., a loin of mutton for is. — such were prices 
in Poland. 

A good test of relative cheapness is the value of 
the coin most generally useful; in Poland these 
were the brass 'banns,' worth about a penny far- 
thing in to-day's values. Of Italy a similar state- 
ment may be made; of England just the contrary. 
And this presence, or absence, of plenty of small 
coins affects the tourist in two ways; partly in re- 
lation to his food, because the more common small 
change is, the more commonly customary is it to 
sell food in quantities suited to a single meal for 
one; secondly, the smaller the change, the smaller 
the tips. Before leaving the subject of food, an 
example may be quoted of the violence of the 
fluctuations in prices at that date when the means 
of carriage and of making wants known in time 
were so crude. Sir Henry Wotton writes, of his 
own knowledge, that the price of victuals at Ven- 
ice was three times as high in 1608 as it had been 
in 1604. 

Lastly, as regards necessary expenditure, what 
did their money itself cost them? 

To begin with, the far greater length of time 
usually necessary then to prove identity, or to 
confirm references, must not be lost sight of, see- 
ing how much it added to the seriousness of the 
hope deferred that maketh the pocket empty. 



342 Touring in 1600 

Next, to deal with the ways of remedying this 
— there were three ways, (i) Carrying cash; (2) 
depositing money with a merchant, or a friend, 
who either remits coins or advises an amount; 
(3) letters of credit. 

Carrying cash meant carrying coins. At any 
rate, not one of these travellers mentions using 
the bank-notes of the day, the 'segni reppresen- 
tativi' just introduced by the Italian bankers, 
nor even the ancient semi-currency of jewels, un- 
less one includes Henri III, who, when escaping 
from the throne of Poland to that of France, car- 
ried off three hundred thousand crowns' worth. 
Carrying coins for future use meant, in the ordi- 
nary way, sewing them up in one's clothes. The 
favourite place was inside a waistband of the 
breeches, a double one designed for that purpose, 
made of leather or canvas, forming a series of 
little pockets, all closed by pulling one string. It 
was so that Lithgow was carrying one hundred 
and thirty-seven double pieces of gold [probably 
double pistoles, equal to £500], when he and the 
gold were seized by the Inquisition at Malaga. 
Next to the waistband, under the arm-pits was 
the most usual spot; but it is given as advisable to 
use one's shabbiest garments in any case for this 
purpose, as the least likely to be searched thor- 
oughly by robbers. In Muscovy the boots were 
more often used than other articles. A small 
reserve might be wrapped round with mending- 



RABELAIS RECEIVES SOME MONEY 

Rabelais' 1 receipt for money received by him against a bill of ex- 
change such as travellers used. Photographed {with M. Heulhard's 
transcription) from the latter' 1 s "Rabelais, ses Voyages, et son Exil." 




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= K 



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"2 «J O TJ 

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S S "2 



3 "a c> 



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5 c •£ 



'The Purse 343 

material, with needles sticking into it to add to 
the innocence of its appearance; or it might be 
hidden at the bottom of a pot of ointment. By 
this latter means Moryson saved himself from 
utter destitution when robbed, having chosen 
ointment which smelt, apparently, like the Mus- 
covite's fish. Equally ingenious and successful 
was another who smuggled all his money past 
the Mohammedan customs by hiding it in pork. 
Mohammedans themselves used their turbans. 

The advantages of carrying money in this way 
— that of having it at hand for certain — was 
outweighed by the chances of robbery or confisca- 
tion; the latter by reason of there being legal 
limits to the amounts that might be taken away 
from countries and towns. Lyons was the most 
liberal, allowing sometimes eighty, sometimes one 
hundred "crowns of the sun" [£144 to £180]. 
Turin allowed fifty silver crowns [£75], Naples 
twenty-five; Rome, according to an edict in 1592, 
no more than five gold crowns [£8]. The rule in 
Spain was that no gold was to leave the country, 
and Spanish towns often enforced this against 
each other; from Murcia in 16 17 no more than 
ten "reals of eight" [£n 5s.] might be taken 
free, but gold was not confiscated, duty being 
levied instead. 

As for England, Hentzner found the limit of 
£10 in 1599, as did Golnitz in some year soon 
after 1618, although Moryson, writing between 



344 "Touring in 1600 

these dates, gives £20. Still earlier, the French- 
man Perlin, who was here at the beginning of 
Queen Mary's reign, says that a pedestrian may 
take no more than ten crowns [£27], a horseman 
twenty, out of the realm; adding, however, that 
a man may convert the rest of his cash into goods 
and so, by realising these goods later, prevent con- 
fiscation; and also, that by accompanying an am- 
bassador one is exempt from search. When it is 
remembered, further, that Francis Davison got 
inserted in his license to travel a clause enabling 
him to carry fifty pounds across with him (for three 
persons), that there were trustworthy merchants 
who would authorise correspondents abroad to pay 
the traveller whatever the latter might have de- 
posited with them, and that these customs con- 
cerning the export of gold and silver were in use 
throughout Europe, it will be seen that if a trav- 
eller suffered loss by confiscation, he deserved his 
losses. 

By far the greater number had their money 
advised at a cost of five to fifteen per cent, usu- 
ally ten per cent, as against the three-quarters per 
cent which would probably represent a maximum 
of loss by exchange to-day to tourists. An un- 
known quantity lay in the differences of values, 
which might yield a profit, or might involve heavy 
loss. Bimetallism prevailed all over Europe, and 
the values of gold and silver both relative to each 
other and positive, fluctuated far more violently 



The Purse 345 

than is the case to-day. When Cavendish returned 
to England after his first circumnavigation of the 
world, the plunder depreciated gold in London 
by one twelfth; in 1603 the exchange from Venice 
to London was twenty-eight per cent in favour 
of Venice; in 1606 it was six per cent higher Lon- 
don to Venice than Venice to London. 

But with all its disadvantages, remitting by 
advice was the most generally satisfactory and 
used method. The tenour of an average bill, how- 
ever, has changed somewhat, "at sight" being the 
only one of the variable terms equally customary 
both then and now. Bills not drawn "at sight" 
were drawn at "usance," "half usance," or "dou- 
ble usance"; "usance" signifying a month as a 
rule. Exceptions were, of course, for longer dis- 
tances, such as London and Venice, when "us- 
ance" meant three months; and how completely 
"usance" is a term of the past is shown by the 
fact that the periods implied by "usance," in the 
rare cases in which it is still found in use, have 
not altered since the sixteenth century, in spite 
of the advance in the quickness of communica- 
tions. "Thirds of exchange," now nearly as ex- 
tinct as "usances," were then kept in regular use 
by the uncertainty of the posts; and in view of 
the difficulties in the way of identification and 
the advantage that money-changers were likely 
to take of them, advices often contained a de- 
scription of the payee. 23 



346 ^touring in 1600 

Method No. 3, letters of credit, was a more 
expensive one than remittance by advice, but for 
places for which no "usance" was established, 
was obligatory; under favourable circumstances 
it might cost no more than ten per cent. There is 
evidence enough to justify conjecture that the 
English government allowed their credit to be 
used sometimes for the convenience of tourists in 
order to facilitate a watch being kept on their 
movements. 24 

Barter also ought not to be wholly left out of 
sight. In Norway dried fish was more serviceable 
than coin, as was tobacco among Turks, the only 
people prompt to copy the English in the use of 
it for pleasure; but by the middle of the seven- 
teenth century the same might be said of West- 
ern Russia. And there is the case of one Thomas 
Douglas in 1600 who could not make arrange- 
ments for four hundred crowns to be advised for 
him at Algiers, applying to the English government 
for leave to take with him duty-free the broad- 
cloth he had bought with the money and meant 
to realise there, to discharge the ransom which the 
money represented. 25 

Supposing, however, that all these means 
failed? The tourist became a beggar till he found 
friends. He might try, of course, to raise a loan, 
but only on terms which would possibly induce 
him to prefer beggary. The "German Ulysses," 
Karl Niitzel of Nuremberg, was robbed at Alex- 



The Purse 347 

andria of his capital; at Cairo he persuaded a 
ship's captain to lend him four hundred ducats, 
undertaking to pay him six hundred at Constan- 
tinople. They arrived thither in two months; the 
interest was therefore at the rate of three hun- 
dred per cent. 26 Sir Henry Wotton, when an 
ambassador, paid twenty per cent for a loan at 
Venice. 

In considering loans we have passed away from 
necessities into the second half of the subject 
of cost, — its reasonable possibilities. These con- 
sist of the risks and difficulties to which the trav- 
eller was liable, nowhere summarised so well as 
in the English Litany, which was written at this 
period : — 

"From lightning and tempest; from plague, 
pestilence and famine; from battle and murder; 
and from sudden death, 

" Good Lord, deliver us." 

Of the eight risks here mentioned, to most of 
which an Englishman at least was more liable 
abroad than at home, all but two have been 
minimised since. And if we note how in all other 
clauses of the Litany, only those troubles or 
desires which have affinity with each other are 
grouped together, it becomes significant in what 
company travellers are prayed for; — 

" That it may please thee to preserve all that 
travel by land or water, all women labouring of 



348 Touring in 1600 

child, all sick persons, and young children; and to 
shew thy pity upon all prisoners and captives. 
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord." 
To take the risk of violence first, and, among 
the forms of violence, war, it has to be remembered 
that the United Provinces was the only State 
whose soldiers were paid punctually. An effect 
of this laxness may be traced in the experience 
of a tourist in Picardy when the latter had been 
reduced to such a state of destitution by war 
that the commandants could not wring anything 
further out of the inhabitants and therefore 
forced contributions from travellers who passed 
through. In 1594 Moryson wished to remit from 
Venice to Paris, but no one had any correspond- 
ence farther than Geneva on account of the civil 
wars, in spite of these being nominally at an end. 
And they assured him it was twenty to one he 
would be robbed by the disbanded soldiers (which 
came true), and, if robbed, would be killed, be- 
cause if they took him for an enemy they would 
think him well killed; if a friend, they would kill 
him to avoid making restitution; and the mar- 
shals were so strictly looked after that they would 
kill anyone who seemed likely to make complaints. 
The effect on prices receives illustration by com- 
paring Andrew Boorde's experience of Aquitaine 
after a long period of peace and prosperity, — 
that one pennyworth [say iod.] of bread will feed 
a man a week, and they sell nine cakes a penny, 



LITHGOW IN TROUBLE 

From the 1632 edition of his "Rare Adventures." 



The Purse 349 

each cake being enough to last a man a day, "ex- 
cept he be a ravener," — with a letter from a Vene- 
tian gentleman, 27 fifty-four years later, by which 
time civil war had become chronic. He writes 
from England, where he found that a good meal 
could be had for ten soldi [2s. 6d.], comparing this 
with France, which he had just traversed, where 
the same could not be bought for less than sixty 
soldi, or even a whole gold crown [£i 13s.]. As 
to Germany, in 1623, only five years after the 
Thirty Years' War broke out, Wotton writes that 
prices have risen enormously, "insomuch as I am 
almost quite out of hope to find Conscience any 
more, since there is none among the very hills and 
deserts, whither I thought she had fled." 

The effect on communications goes without 
saying. Even worse than that was the danger 
from those whom the horrible cruelty of sixteenth- 
century warfare drove half-mad with grief and 
loss, who shook off civilisation and robbed and 
murdered recklessly. According to Aubigne, who 
witnessed the horrors which he dwells on at length 
in his "Les Tragiques," war demoralised even the 
dogs in a way that endangered every passer-by. 
Speaking of those around Moncontour, where was 
fought one of the battles which left most bodies 
on the field, 

Vous en voyez l'espreuve au champ de Moncontour; 

Hereditairement ils ont, depuis ce jour, 

La rage naturelle, et leur race enyvree 

Du sang des vrais Francois, se sent de la curee. 



3 so Touring in 1600 

But it may be objected that the evidence of a 
sectarian historian is not admissible on any ques- 
tion of fact. Take, then, what a sober correspond- 
ent writes from the scene of the Thirty Years' 
War in 1639, not °f dogs, but of men: "It is an 
ordinary thing in Brandenburg country to eat 
man's flesh," 28 and he goes on to tell how a judge 
has just met his death that way. 

Again, De Thou, approaching Merindol, finds 
not a soul to be seen; all had retired to caves at 
the sight of armed men. Elsewhere he saw all the 
peasants at work armed, and of one town nothing 
remained intact but a fountain and one street; 
the work of a commander, in the king's name, for 
the gratification of his private revenge. The state 
produced is well described by Sir Thomas Over- 
bury in 1609 as one in which there was "no man 
but had an enemy within three miles, and so the 
country became frontier all over." What "fron- 
tier" meant is well defined by an Italian of this 
time as country to which a few could do no harm 
and in which many could not live. The prosper- 
ity of the Empire while this was the state of 
France has been already outlined; what it became, 
as a result of the civil war, while France was 
becoming the best organised and most civilised 
country in Europe, may be guessed from Reres- 
by's description of the district which in 1600 had 
been the most comfortable in Christendom, that 
between Augsburg and Frankfurt; villages and 



The Purse 351 

towns uninhabited, much ground untilled, no 
meat to be had, no sheets, sometimes no beds; for 
drink, milk and water, little wine and that sour 
and very dear; people so boorish as to resemble 
beasts. Significant, too, is it that while Sir Philip 
Sidney, defining the qualities of the dominions 
of Europe for his brother, writes, "Germany doth 
excel in good laws and well administering of 
justice," and while all subsequent travellers for 
forty years confirm this, a German, Zeiler, com- 
piled his guide to Spain shortly before the date 
when the correspondent just quoted wrote his 
letter, and in this guide, in maintaining the claims 
of Spain on the attention of the student, puts 
among the characteristics in which Spain excels 
the rest of Europe, the inflexibility of justice 
there. 

Yet civil war was less detrimental to touring 
than international war, inasmuch as no nation 
was barred the country for the time being. Be- 
sides, fewer mercenaries were employed. Now, 
however bad the native soldier may have been, 
— and how bad that was may be judged from 
Shakespeare's picture of him in "Henry V" 
(Act in, sc. 2), — mercenaries were far worse, 
seeing that they behaved in the country they 
were defending as the others did only in that 
which they attacked. Sastrow followed in the 
wake of the mercenaries whom Charles V im- 
ported; wherever they had passed the way was 



352 Touring in 1600 

strewn with corpses. In one house he found the 
body of a man who had been suspended by the 
genitals, a usual custom, while they tortured him 
to make him reveal his valuables, and released by 
a sword-stroke, not on the cord he hung by, but 
"flush with the abdomen." From Bamberg they 
carried off four hundred women as far as Nurem- 
berg, while Hungarians cut off the feet and hands 
of children and stuck them in their hats instead 
of feathers. And it is perhaps worth while quot- 
ing the effect on Sastrow himself. On his horse 
being stolen, he "chose the best nag at hand"; 
and finding a gentleman's house temporarily 
abandoned, he and his companions stole whole- 
sale, not only to satisfy present wants, but also in 
order to realise money later. 

The effect of all this so far as it concerned tour- 
ists may be exemplified by the state of the high- 
road between Danzig and Hamburg, along which, 
in 1600, the only corpses in evidence were those 
of criminals. By 1652, in one day's journey, a 
traveller 29 could count thirty-four piles of faggots, 
each pile marking the spot where a wayfarer had 
been murdered. Each passer-by was expected to 
add a faggot. Another result was that soldiers 
continued to exercise during peace the habits 
they had contracted in war. When Lady Fan- 
shawe passed through Abbeville in 1659, the 
governor warned her against local robbers, ad- 
vising an escort of garrison soldiers at a pistole 



The Purse 353 

[£3, 6s. 8d.] each. She engaged ten, and met a 
band of fifty 'robbers.' The ten parleyed with 
the fifty, and the fifty retired; they, too, were 
soldiers of the garrison. 

Between the soldier and the robber, in fact, the 
difference was merely that of official, and unoffi- 
cial, employment. It was in the latter capacity, of 
course, that they oftenest had dealings with the 
tourist; or were supposed to do so. One cannot help 
being struck by the idea that these travellers were 
far more frightened than hurt, so far as robbery 
was concerned. A lady, for instance, between Turin 
and Genoa, saw the road stained with blood where 
wayfarers had lately been robbed and murdered, 
yet passed in safety. 30 One traveller, it is true, 
was stopped four times between St. Malo and 
Havre, but more normal experiences were those 
of Moryson, who suffered so but once in more 
than four years' travel, and of Hentzner, who en- 
countered robbers once in three years and then 
escaped. He had warning and hired an escort; but 
it has to be noted that this escort, for one day, 
cost more than fifty crowns [£90]. Very similar 
was the experience of the Venetian ambassador 
Lippomano on his way to Paris in 1577. 31 A 
rumour got about that he was conveying a loan 
of eight hundred thousand francs to the French 
government, and a Venetian ambassador was 
easy to get information about because of the red 
trappings of his mules. He was warned, and so 



354 Touring in 1600 

were the towns on the route; with the result that 
his own company were refused admission on 
suspicion that they were the highwaymen in dis- 
guise; and watched, as they passed, by garrisons 
on the walls. For six days they marched in con- 
tinual fear; swords drawn, arquebus-matches 
lighted. Once they thought the "volori" really 
were upon them, but out of the cloud of dust 
galloped nothing but the escort from Troyes to 
relieve the escort from Bar-sur-Seine. And in 
the end they were fleeced by none but the escorts 
themselves. 

These escorts were part of the life of the time; 
important towns kept them as a matter of course, 
in default of a system of country-police such as 
existed in Spain, the "Santa Hermandad," who 
first suppressed the thieves and then took over, 
and extended, their business. In France, however, 
towards the end of this period, the highways be- 
gan to be patrolled regularly by police, in couples, 
none but whom might carry firearms. Yet this 
arrangement was in force when of the travellers 
who followed just behind Evelyn on the Paris- 
Orleans road, four were killed. And within a few 
years of this some one tells us how he heard cries 
issuing from the inside of a dead horse, cut open 
by robbers in order to give themselves more time 
to escape by fastening their victim inside it, a dirty 
trick, literally, for he was pulled out in as untidy a 
state as it was possible for a stark-naked man to be. 



TRAVELLERS ATTACKED BY ROBBERS 

No. 7 of Jacques C 'allot 's " Miseres de la Guerre"'; a photograph 
of the British Museum copy of the second impression (1633). The 
second state has been chosen in preference to the first, as including 
the verses of the Abbe de Marolles, himself a traveller; the clearness 
of the etching not having suffered in the second impression. 



The Purse 355 

To meet, when alone, with two ruffians, to pre- 
tend, being on foot and decidedly shabby, to be 
a beggar; and to pass them thus, not only with- 
out loss, but with is. 2d. towards his next meal 
— such was the experience of one Englishman 
abroad. But what could he have done had the 
beasts been four-legged ones? Here was another 
risk to run; and, perhaps, to pay for. There were 
plenty to meet. It is not surprising to read of 
them breaking into stables and ransacking ceme- 
teries in Muscovy, where, by the way, protec- 
tion against them was supposed to be secured 
by the noise of a big stick dragging at the back 
of the sledge by a rope; but things were little 
better near Paris. Readers of Rabelais may recol- 
lect a second narrow escape that befell the six pil- 
grims whom Gargantua ate in a salad in conse- 
quence of their hiding among the lettuces to avoid 
being eaten by him as meat. After their mirac- 
ulous escape out of his mouth, they barely saved 
themselves from falling into a snare for wolves. It 
was no exaggeration to write so about Touraine; 
in the winter of 1653 a pack entered Blois and 
ate a child. And just before Evelyn visited Fon- 
tainebleau, "a lynx or ounce" had killed some 
one passing thither by the highroad from Paris. 
The country between Geneva and Lyons, again, 
writes one who passed through it, was "mainly 
inhabited by wolves and bears." 

But we have not finished with people. Slavery 



356 Touring in 1600 

had to be reckoned with, and therefore ransoms. 
More than one refers to the "malcontents" of 
the Low Countries, unpaid Spanish garrison- 
soldiers who wandered about on the look-out for 
Englishmen in particular, and esteeming a younger 
brother's ransom at twenty thousand crowns of 
the sun [£35,000], says Wotton. But the risk of 
capture, in the ordinary way, was confined to Mo- 
hammedan territory and the neighbouring sea- 
shores, with Algiers as headquarters. Many men 
who were slaves there at this period have left re- 
cord of their adventures; of whom Gramaye is per- 
haps the best to quote from, inasmuch as no one 
was a more acute, thorough, and trustworthy ob- 
server. He lived at Algiers in 1 619, one of twenty 
thousand Christian slaves. According to the sta- 
tistics he gives of the previous twelve years, two 
hundred and fifty-one ships had brought in twelve 
thousand, two hundred and forty prisoners, of 
whom eight hundred and fifty-seven Germans had 
apostatised, three hundred English, one hundred 
and thirty-eight from Hamburg, " Danes and 
Easterlings" one hundred and sixty; Poles, Hun- 
garians, and Muscovites two hundred and fifty, 
Low Countrymen one hundred and thirty ; be- 
sides French and others. Fewest renegades came 
from Spain and Italy, because in those two coun- 
tries alone were permanent systematic collectors 
of money for ransoms ; the two orders of the Trin- 
ity and of Our Lady of Pity paid out sixty-three 



« WOLVES " 

Another wood-cut from Derricke's "Image of ' Irelande," or rather, 
fart of one, the size of the original. It represents Derricke's best 
wishes for Rory Oge, the 'rebel,' but is none the less applicable gen- 
erally. 



"The Purse 357 

thousand ducats [over £70,000], in this way yearly, 
a drain of gold which does not seem to have been 
taken into account by economists, although not 
counteracted, but on the contrary increased, by 
trade transactions with Mohammedan centres like 
Constantinople and Aleppo, and added to by all 
the privately paid ransoms. Sir Anthony Sherley 
ransomed two Portuguese gentlemen for ten thou- 
sand pounds, who had been enslaved sixteen years, 
and for one of whom three ransoms had been sent, 
each of which had been captured by pirates. The 
statement already made about all forms of life in- 
surance being censured as gambling must be modi- 
fied in connection with slavery, for both the law 
and public opinion approved of a man paying pre- 
miums to assure a ransom being paid, and that 
promptly, in the event of his capture; and the sys- 
tem seems to have been infrequent use, 32 although 
it must be admitted that not one of these travellers 
seems so much as aware of its existence. 

The expenses of protection against pirates may 
be imagined from the estimate for the outfit of the 
galley intended to carry the Provencal deputation 
to Constantinople in 1585, referred to earlier. 
The galley-slaves numbered two hundred; the 
deputation fifty. Sixty soldiers were to be taken 
for defence, whose wages for the eight months 
were to be nineteen hundred and twenty crowns 
of the sun; in addition to which was their keep, 
nine thousand and forty crowns, and arms and 



358 Touring in 1600 

gunpowder, five hundred crowns, the total equal- 
ling about twenty-seven thousand pounds of our 
money. 

Of Turkey Sir Henry Blount says that in assur- 
ing himself against loss of liberty lay " the most ex- 
pense and trouble of my voyage." And Blount's 
opinion is the better worth having, seeing that 
he would have been the last to fail in the exercise 
of courtesy and tact, the absence of which is the 
commonest cause of martyrdom. Several times 
he had to use his knife to avoid being pushed into 
a house, and hardly a day passed without his Jan- 
izary being offered a price for him. His defences 
against it in general were to cultivate or buy 
friends and to make a practice of pretending he 
had no friends and little money, and that all that 
remained to him was wagered against his return, 
because enslavement would be more in hope of 
ransom than service. 

The enslavement of the Jerusalem pilgrim 
seems to have been comparatively rare before the 
end of the sixteenth century; yet two of the most 
striking narratives belong to the year 1565. The 
first adventure, however, happened during an 
excursion to Jordan without escort, a risk that 
none dreamt of running later. A German, named 
Fiirer, set out in February, with a friend, a eunuch- 
interpreter, and a monk-guide. Sitting down to 
a meal on the way back, four Arabs appeared, 
whom they treated as guests ; yet, the meal over, 



The Purse 359 

the Arabs enquired whether their hosts had any 
money or garments worth stealing. Doubting 
their negatives, they undressed them, and beneath 
the monkish outer-garment which each one was 
wearing discovered on the two travellers under- 
clothing which suggested riches. The Arabs forth- 
with led all four away into the desert to sell them 
at Medina, but were induced before long to de- 
spatch the monk with two of themselves to the 
nearest monastery, that of S. Saba, some hours' 
journey from Jerusalem, for ransom. The remain- 
ing three Franks, unarmed, chose their time to 
attack the two armed Arabs, and after a desper- 
ate fight and a fearful journey, wounded, parched, 
and famished, Fiirer climbed up a rope-ladder 
into the monastery through one of the back- 
windows, while the two other Arabs were being 
kept waiting in the front. 

The other tale concerns sixty-two pilgrims who 
sailed from Jaffa in the August of that same 
year. 33 On October 16 they were shipwrecked off 
the coast of Asia Minor, one being drowned. On 
landing six were killed, the rest taken prisoners, 
a proportion of whom go to Rhodes. These are 
urged to apostatise — in vain. They offer ran- 
soms; Frau Johanna of Antwerp three hundred 
ducats [£540], Pastor Peter Villingen three hun- 
dred and twelve kronen [which may mean any- 
thing from £200 to £800; probably the former] : 
the total came to three thousand, two hundred and 



360 "Touring in 1600 



sixty kronen. This does not seem enough to their 
owners; the Venetian and some sailors get free 
somehow; the others are sent to the galleys. Dur- 
ing 1566 Frau Johanna and six others die. By 
May 1, 1568, seven more are dead; two have been 
redeemed for six hundred kronen; two others for 
four hundred and eighty kronen. Soon after, an 
Italian was ransomed by the Venetian "bailo." 
This is all that is known of the sixty-two. 

Another risk that was greater on the Jerusa- 
lem journey was that of disease, or enfeeblement 
through hardship. The state of things normal in 
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre must alone 
have told on health; one German on his return to 
Jaffa counted two hundred and thirty lice in his 
clothes. But, throughout, disease lay in wait for 
all in a deadlier form than any we meet with. 
Just as instead of "nerves" they suffered from 
"inflammation of the conscience," so, instead of 
influenza, they had plague, infectious in the high- 
est degree and fatal in a few days, or quicker. In 
Constantinople it was looked on as inevitable and 
raged unhindered. Yet, says Blount, the Turks' 
carelessness was less of a hindrance to trade than 
the Christians' precautions. In Venice, over the 
doors of the inn-bedrooms was written "Ricor- 
dati della bolletta" — "Remember your bill of 
health." This "bolletta," or "bolletina," also 
known as "fede" or "patente," had to be ob- 
tained, before entering Venice, from the "com- 



A SOUVENIR 

A letter which was on the way between Venice and London in Oc- 
tober, 1606, when the bearer was attacked by robbers in Lorraine, 
showing the tears and damp-stains it received in consequence. The 
letter is from Sir Henry IVotlon, then ambassador in Venice; it was 
picked np and forwarded to Henry IV of France, who sent it on to 
London, ft is now in the Public Records Office, No. Jj. in Bundle 
5 of the State Papers, Foreign {Venetian). The bearer, Rozvland 
Woodward, was paid £60 on Feb. 2, 160S, as compensation and 
for doctor's expenses, but had not fully recovered from his injuries 
by 1625. (Cf. L. P. Smith's "Life and Letters of Sir Henry 
Wotton" i, 325-8, 365 note, and ii. 481.) 









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/' 



y- 






"The Purse 361 

missari" or "soprastanti della sanita," certify- 
ing freedom from plague; failing which, or if a 
"fede" obtained elsewhere was not "clean," i. e. 
not bearing the official counter-signatures guar- 
anteeing freedom from plague at the last stopping- 
places, the new-comer had to "far la contumacia," 
go into quarantine for forty days. The disinfect- 
ants consisted of sun, air, and vinegar, and the 
confinement, if not on board ship, was in a spot 
chosen for its pleasant healthiness, under shelter 
which was clean, roomy, and well furnished, with 
a broad verandah on which one's belongings were 
to be laid out. This practice was constant at 
Venice, where ships were always arriving from 
plague-stricken ports; in the rest of Italy it was 
frequent but intermittent. Outside Italy a 
plague-scare occurred more rarely. When it did 
the healthy but tired wayfarers might find them- 
selves shut out of the town where they looked- to 
find food and rest; perhaps would find the high- 
way itself barricaded 34 by the authorities of a 
town which was plague-free and determined to 
remain so, and forced to ride all night by dark 
and dangerous by-ways 35 — unless they pretended 
to be an ambassador and his retinue, as some 
English merchants once did. 

Too much stress must not be laid on the troubles 
of a stranger who fell ill of a less deadly illness. 
Perhaps, even, a German with the toothache 
might still have the same experience in Spain as 



362 Touring in 1600 

did a countryman of his three hundred years ago. 
Having tried a cupping-glass himself in vain, he 
went to the local barber-surgeon; the latter dug 
the tooth out with a bread-knife! Yet in hospi- 
tals a change for the better can be easily proved. 
The chief hospital at Paris, the Hotel-Dieu, was 
visited by an Italian 36 in the middle of the seven- 
teenth century. Three or four men lay in each 
bed, or two women; and the stench was terrible, 
even to a seventeenth-century nose. At the galley- 
slaves' hospital at Marseilles, a boy went in front 
of visitors with a "pan of perfume." Still more to 
the point, regarding this particular period, was 
the predicament of a man at the point of death 
in a district with a different theological stamp 
from his own, say, a Protestant in a Roman Cath- 
olic country. He would then have the choice of 
accepting the sacrament in the locally orthodox 
form or confessing himself a Protestant. In the 
latter case the priest might cut the heretic off 
from the help, not only of the doctor, but of the 
cook also, and if he recovered in spite of this, the 
Inquisition might be awaiting him. And yet a 
man of average morality would be far less of an 
adiaphorist in the sixteenth century than to-day. 
Some Protestants at Venice resigned themselves 
at death to the only cemetery-burial — that with 
Roman Catholic rites; but most chose to be buried 
at sea off Malamocco, trusting in the phrase, 
"And the sea shall give up its dead." 



The Purse 363 

As to the "sudden death" of which the Litany 
speaks, if one regards direct evidence only, there 
may well be a tendency to think the risk of it 
somewhat exaggerated, but the balance will re- 
cover itself if, to the number of travellers who 
have left us record of their doings, is added that 
of the dead men who would have told tales if they 
could. Mile after mile of loneliest road had to 
be slowly traversed, many a mile through forest 
where now is open ground, at a time when existed 
far less force in conventions to restrain those, 
perhaps even more numerous then than now, 
like the murderers of Banquo: — 

... I am one 
Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world 
Have so incensed that I am reckless what 
I do to spite the world. 

. . . And I another 
So weary with disasters, tugged with fortune 
That I would set my life on any chance 
To mend it or to be rid on't. 

In the towns, the narrow dark streets gave the 
assassin his opportunity, whether a mistaken one 
or not. Readers of Cellini's autobiography will 
recall his remark that he trained himself to turn 
corners wide and may have noted it as merely 
characteristic; but before Cellini's book was in 
print, we find the French tourist, Payen of Meaux, 
writing of the Venetians, "Quand ils marchent 



364 "Touring in 1600 

la nuit, ils ne tournent jamais court pour entrer 
dans une Rue; mais ils tiennent le milieu, arm 
d'eviter la rencontre de ceux qui voudroient les 
attendre." 

Supposing, however, that a foreigner died in 
peace, what happened to the money and chattels 
with him at the moment? According to Zeiler, 
in Aragon the practice was to notify the authori- 
ties at his native place and hold the goods at the 
disposal of the legal heirs for a' year, after which 
limit unclaimed property was handed to the 
Brotherhood of Our Lady of Pity to be employed 
in the redemption of captives. In Rome the cus- 
tom was for the servant to take the dead master's 
clothes. In France the State took absolutely 
everything by the "droit d'aubaine," which was 
the law wherever feudalism had established it- 
self, though sometimes in abeyance; in Poland it 
seems to have been completely so." The strictness, 
on the contrary, with which it was enforced in 
France is well illustrated by the fate of the library 
of Sir Kenelm Digby, who died at Paris in 1665. 
It was forfeited to Louis XIV by the "droit 
d'aubaine"; he gave it away; the new owner sold 
it to a relative of the late owner for ten thousand 
crowns. 

This right, based as it was on the same " right 
to pillage" under which the Jews suffered in the 
Middle Ages, 38 brings out very clearly one fact 
which was always liable to affect a traveller's 



The Purse 365 

finances, namely, that in so far as he was a trav- 
eller, he had no legal privileges. Two Dutch 
gentlemen, 39 for instance, were at Paris at a 
time when war between Holland and France sud- 
denly became imminent. They found the financial 
agents forbidden to pay them on bills of exchange 
or letters of credit, and their goods were tempo- 
rarily confiscated. It was the ordinary procedure 
of the time. Here again is obvious the advantage 
of going in the train of an ambassador; the latter's 
rights were the fullest protection that an alien 
could acquire, except mercantile ones at their 
best. Yet even these ambassadorial rights lacked 
so much of the fullness and the clearness that 
they possess to-day that they were not put for- 
ward in a modern form, not even in theory, until 
the treatise of Grotius on the subject published 
in 1625. 40 

These Dutch gentlemen just mentioned found 
themselves in difficulties on their arrival in Paris 
in another way also. They had introductions to 
good society; fashions had changed while they 
were en route; they must stay in their lodgings 
till the tailor had done his worst. Even if they 
had been going to Jerusalem they would still have 
felt the relationship between cost and clothes, 
a relationship decidedly closer then than at pre- 
sent. Only in going to Jerusalem it took this form, 
that the shabbier you went the less the journey 
cost. As to kind, preferably such as were worn 



366 'Touring in 1600 

by Greeks, friars, merchants, or Syrian Christians. 
The pilgrim's ordinary dress, described in one of 
those picturesque snatches of verse with which 
Shakespeare's contemporary, Robert Greene, 
lightened his tales, — 

Down the valley 'gan he track 

Bag and bottle at his back. 

In a surcoat all of grey, 

Such wear palmers on the way 

When with scrip and staff they see 

Jesus' grave on Calvary, — 

was no protection against suspicion of riches. 
Yet it was supposed to lessen the risk of being 
kidnapped into slavery at Algiers on the road to 
Montserrat if one carried the white pilgrim's 
staff. 

Crossing the Alps, for a northerner who did not 
wish to be conspicuously alien, meant a complete 
change into black silk; for the brilliant attire 
which we see in productions of " Romeo and 
Juliet" reflects Elizabethan England, not Italy. 
Italy manufactured those multi-coloured materi- 
als, it is true, but for export or official use only, 
except for the ash colour that betokened a vow 
not perfected. 

Typical minor incidents were the purchasing 
of a new handkerchief in Germany, of light- 
coloured silk, and, as to size, somewhat resembling 
a saddle-cloth, with initials of some motto worked 
in a corner thereof, say D. H. I. M. T. ("Der Herr 



The Purse 367 

ist Mein Trost") or W. H. I. B. ("Wie heilig 
ist Bruderschaft"), and secondly, the story of a 
sugar-loaf hat. An Italian priest wore it in Italy 
— but not in France. Before leaving Lyons he 
had grown tired of a crowd of children following 
him about. So far from being able to sell it, it 
was impossible to find any one who would take it 
as a gift until he met a man whose business was 
partly selling a powder which killed mice. The 
rest of his business was the profession of town- 
fool. That being so, he could accept the hat; he 
cut it into the shape of an imperial crown and 
gave himself out as the Emperor of the Moluccas. 

A complete change into French clothes cost 
this priest two pistoles [£8], and he adds the de- 
tail that nowhere was waterproof material to be 
bought. The waxed cloth which was sold as such 
cracked wherever it had been folded. 

On occasion, too, changes of clothes might be 
a legal obligation. The sumptuary laws might 
step in and forbid the new-comer to wear what was 
perhaps his one respectable garment. Or again, 
in Muscovy, foreigners used to dress as natives 
to avoid the jeers of the crowd; but at some date 
early in the seventeenth century the Patriarch 
noticed Germans behaving irreverently at a fes- 
tival and complained that foreigners ought not to 
seem included in the benediction that was given 
to the faithful. Foreigners were therefore ordered 
to revert to their national dress, which produced 



368 Touring in 1600 

most ludicrous results until the tailors could finish 
new garments; inasmuch as the merchants had 
to fall back on those that had belonged to their 
predecessors, leaving sometimes a whole gener- 
ation between the fashions of their upper and 
nether garments. 

All these things might fall on the tourist: each 
one cost money; some one, at least, of them he 
would hardly escape. One more source of possible 
loss existed, one that he was certain to have to 
face — the money itself. The variety of coins was 
just as great as the variety of clothes, though with 
this difference that the clothes were as local as the 
coins were international — just the opposite of 
the case to-day. This is not equally true, of course, 
of all denominations, and the majority may not 
have circulated so freely as in preceding centuries, 
but the higher ones seem to have passed about 
from hand to hand with little more hesitation 
than Australian sovereigns do in England. When 
exceptions occurred, they generally had political 
causes: French gold, for example, being more 
willingly taken by the Swiss than other foreign 
gold because they had become so used to it in the 
course of serving as French mercenaries. 

Of the uncertainties of the tourist, however, 
in relation to coins, that caused by their inter- 
national character would be the first to disappear. 
There remained a trinity of diversities to bewilder 



376 Touring in 1600 

century town or hamlet. Yet if you call to mind 
the towns seen in passing which you recollect most 
vividly, most will probably be those in which your 
first walks happened after dark. And is there any 
Gothic cathedral, however grand, whose outside 
is not commonplace by day compared to its glory 
by night? 

Moreover, the dearth of information narrowed 
not their opportunities merely, but their interests 
likewise. Carnac and Stonehenge were no doubt 
a long way out of their way, but the dolmen of 
Bagneux was no more than three-quarters of a 
mile from Saumur, where many of them stayed 
for weeks, or even months. Yet not a single one, 
apparently, went to see it. As for the opportuni- 
ties, not only was Pompeii still buried for them, 
but Rome itself was, as Montaigne says, not so 
much ruins as a sepulchre of ruins. When, again, 
some one says of Lyons that the houses are fine 
but the streets so ill-smelling and dirty that one 
cannot stop to admire them, it may remind us 
that much that was nominally visible was prac- 
tically invisible; whether through being what was, 
to them, a considerable distance off their routes, 
like Brou or Laon, or, as with most cathedrals, 
through houses being built up against them. 
Similarly, the Roman amphitheatre at Nimes is a 
case in point; houses having been erected inside 
it so freely that in 1682 five hundred men capable 
of bearing arms were supposed to be dwelling 



The Purse 375 

view of the question as it appeared to a man who 
was both man of the world and scholar, one cannot 
do better than turn to a letter written by Estienne 
Pasquier, a letter of introduction for a son of 
Turnebus. "Comme il a l'esprit beau, aussi lui 
est-il tombe en teste, ce qui tombe ordinairement 
aux ames les plus genereuses, de vouloir voyager 
pour le faire sage. . . . S'il m'en croit, il se con- 
tentera de voir l'ltalie en passant; car ce que 
Pyrrhus Neoptolemus disoit de la Philosophic, 
qu'il falloit philosopher, mais sobrement, je le 
dy du voyage d'ltalie, a tous nos jeunes Francois 
qui s'y acheminent par une convoitise de voir." 44 
Yet there is one defect of their travels which 
necessarily escaped notice at the time but cannot 
fail to strike any one now, which is, how much 
they passed by without a glance. It is commonly 
thought that the contrast of travel in days gone 
by with that of the later times is one of leisure- 
liness as against universal effort to go "faster, 
farther, and higher " than one's neighbour. But 
the truth is that in what essentially characterises 
leisureliness in travelling, the leaving time and 
energy free for enjoying and studying places on 
the road, and still more, off it, they were more 
wanting than we. They went the greatest pace 
they could; where they stopped at the night they 
left at dawn; and overnight they had been too 
tired to explore amid the filth, the dangers, the 
darkness, the inextricable confusion, of a sixteenth- 



374 Touring in 1600 

revealed as a brand-new dummy-sin. It is curious 
that this very bishop, Joseph Hall, should in de- 
scribing his own journeys, unconsciously provide 
the most clear-cut sketch of how not to travel that 
has, perhaps, ever been written. 43 If, among these 
types, we miss the retired colonel, we must re- 
member that the title was so recently invented, 
the times so bloody, that all the colonels were 
probably either righting or dead. At any rate, the 
interest of this type of pamphlet belongs rather to 
the history of publishing than to that of travel, as 
dating the time when publishers first discovered 
what a paying public can be created among the 
lower levels of Puritanism. The proportion of fact 
that gave them a starting-point may best be put 
in perspective by pointing out the parallel that 
exists between travel in Italy three hundred years 
ago and modern motoring. Nobody who could 
afford it went without; everybody who could not 
afford it abused everybody who did; it killed some, 
maimed others, benefited most, and brightened 
the life of many a poor rich man who otherwise 
would have departed this life little better off men- 
tally than his own cows. These pamphleteers 
were committing the fundamental error of allow- 
ing their attention to be absorbed by the seven 
eighths of foolishness that characterises every- 
thing human instead of concentrating it on the 
other eighth which provides the justification as 
well as the driving-force. For a sober, all-round, 



"The Purse 373 

gathered; and the fruit is ours. And now; was the 
pleasure worth the money? was the wisdom worth 
the gathering? 

The answer is, most emphatically, Yes ! — Yes 
for them, and Yes for us. But as to the latter 
question there were two answers then, and the 
subject has suggestions beyond those that have 
come up so far. Let us look at this adverse opin- 
ion, and one or two of the suggestions. 

During the sixteenth century it became a con- 
vention to abuse travel, especially travel in Italy; 
a convention which may have been more fruitful 
in England than elsewhere, but certainly was not 
so to the exclusive extent which modern books in 
English seem to imply. The difficulty would be 
to find a nation whose literature at this time does 
not contain examples of it; even in Poland, where 
of all places travel was most taken for granted, 
this topic was one of the first to be dealt with 
when the vernacular was turned to literary ac- 
count, namely, in the satires of Kochanowski. 
When examined, these invectives turn out to have 
won more attention than they are entitled to, 
written as they generally are, especially in Eng- 
land, by the class whose medium is nowadays the 
half-penny paper or the ' religious ' novel. We find 
among their authors all the familiar figures, from 
the hack-journalist who parades a belated moral- 
ity for the sake of his stomach down to the bishop 
to whom the subject, when worn rather thin, is 



372 "Touring in 1600 

On the Jerusalem journey the higher payments 
were reckoned in foreign money usually, the 
Italian gold zecchini and silver piastri most fre- 
quently; smaller ones in brass meidines of Tripoli 
or of Cairo, equal to about a penny farthing and 
twopence respectively, or in aspers, about three 
farthings. 

Just as, further, the tourist could examine a 
coin without being able to find out its nominal 
value, could ascertain the latter and still be igno- 
rant of its real value, so, too, he was continually 
having to pay reckonings in coins which did not 
exist. The Venetian and Spanish ducat, the Ger- 
man gulden, the French livre tournois, the Mus- 
covite rouble, and, later, their altine also, were 
coins of account only. All these coins were as 
commonly used in daily business in their own 
localities as guineas are in English charities; and 
the ducat and the gulden far outside them. In 
the seventeenth century the Spanish pistole was 
actual coin in its own country and coin of account 
in France; board and lodging on "pension" terms 
would be reckoned in pistoles in Paris. In fact, 
the French equivalent for "rolling in riches," 
"cousu de pistoles," is equally evidence of the 
international character of seventeenth-century 
gold and of the method of carrying it. 

The tourist in 1600 has done his touring. His 
money is spent; his pleasure is buried; his wisdom 



"The Purse 37* 

twopence each, but as a matter of fact groschen 
varied so greatly that to give one away might be 
either extravagance or an insult. There were, of 
course, many multiples of these denominations, 
and besides coins, tokens innumerable, all having 
but this in common that when one had gone a few 
miles further they would not be taken in payment. 
They might be made of base metal, like that of 
the famous "Mermaid" tavern which is preserved 
at the "birthplace" at Stratford-on-Avon, or of 
leather, or almost anything else solid. 

In Muscovy were no native coins but silver, 
and those so small that the Muscovites used to 
keep dozens in their mouths because they slipped 
through their fingers — and that without incom- 
moding their speech. In Spain, 42 so far as there 
was any standard, it was the Castilian real, which 
you might exchange for thirty-four Castilian 
maravedis, forty Portuguese rais, thirty-six Valen- 
cian dineros, twenty-four Aragonese, and thirty- 
eight Catalonian dineros. But these Portuguese 
coins would not be taken in Castile, nor the 
Castilian in Valencia, nor Valencian anywhere 
out of Valencia. Along the chief merchants' road 
in Spain, from Barcelona, you might go one hun- 
dred miles, as far as Lerida, and find every place 
with a different minor coinage, current there only, 
and in Barcelona one was especially liable to re- 
ceive coins which no one, not even in Barcelona, 
would accept. 



37° Touring in 1600 

to change or appreciated that of the coin he had 
to acquire. Lady Fanshawe mentions a proclama- 
tion of October 14, 1664, at Madrid which cost 
her husband, ambassador there, eight hundred 
pounds. Since then, paper money has come to 
absorb all the political dishonesty that used to be 
exercised on coins, and the far less abrupt modern 
methods minimise the loss to the tourist. The 
French government went bankrupt fifty-six times 
during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 41 

As to the other diversity, that of kind, Lauder 
saw a proclamation which assessed the values of 
five hundred coins then current in France. 

The whole of the above refers mainly to gold 
and the higher denominations of silver. Yet these 
more important coins were a simple matter com- 
pared with small change, especially in Italy; for 
when the tourist had been confronted with soldi, 
grossi, giuli, paoli, reali, quattrini, susine, denari, 
cavallotti, cavallucci, carlini, bagatini, bolignei, 
baocchi, baelli, etc., he could not but feel relieved 
when, crossing the Alps, he had only to face Swiss 
plapparts and finfers and the German batz, 
kreutzer, stiver, copstiick, sesling, pfennig, and 
not many more. The grosch perhaps ought to be 
mentioned as well if only for the fact that Taylor, 
the "water-poet," when at Hamburg, noticed 
that among twenty-three groschen he had in his 
pocket there were thirteen varieties, owing to the 
number of local mints. He valued all these at 



"The Purse 369 

him permanently and to deliver him over, de- 
fenceless, to the dishonest: diversity of value, 
diversity of kind, diversity of inscription. 

To take the last first; it might seem that ab- 
sence was a more appropriate term than diversity, 
seeing that the nominal value of a coin in circu- 
lation about 1600 was only in the smallest per- 
centage of cases stated on its face; and when 
one comes to think of it, it is only the tourist 
who ever reads a coin for business purposes. 
Where the diversity comes in lies in the fact 
of certain names becoming popular, such as 
"paolo" in Italy, which meant that many differ- 
ent types would be struck, all "paoli" but none 
alike. As to variations in value these may be 
illustrated from the Venetian zecchino, the Hun- 
garian ducat, the sultanon of Constantinople and 
the sheriff of Cairo. All of these are reckoned as 
equal in one year or other between 1592 and 1620 
by one or other trustworthy traveller, yet the 
differences of value of one coin or other of the 
four vary from 6s. 8d. to 9s.; and this was not a 
steady rise. In fact, the difference between the 1 592 
and 1620 valuations is but fourpence. Moreover, 
the settlement of values was far less a commercial 
affair merely than it has become; governments 
were forever tinkering at it by means of procla- 
mations, all telling against the tourist, since their 
object was to attract, or to retain, bullion, which 
either depreciated the value of the coin he wished 



The Purse 377 

there. 45 And along with these conditions of living 
went ideas to correspond; the total effect being 
half-prohibitive of the occupations of the artist, 
the historian, and the archaeologist, and this at a 
period when a larger proportion of the greatest 
buildings of Europe coexisted than at any other 
period. In fact, so far as the Loire chateaux are 
concerned, it is clear that the modern tourist sees 
far more of some of the finest Renascence work 
than did its contemporaries, who were restricted 
here to a visit to Chambord and a glimpse of the 
outsides of Blois and Amboise. 

But after all deductions of this kind have been 
granted, they may well reply that their concern 
was not so much with that part of the present 
which we term the past, but with that which we 
term the future, their individual futures, in par- 
ticular; and that their object was achieved; add- 
ing, moreover, that travel under these conditions 
was certainly superior to travel of the twentieth 
century, considered as a form of education in the 
wider sense of the word. For not only was it 
obligatory to share the life of the country and its 
language to an extent which is optional now, but 
a traveller was continually being thrown on his 
own resources and presence of mind in matters 
which concerned his self-respect, his health, and 
his safety, whereas now everything is merely a 
matter of cash. 

Turning to the benefit to us in day-by-day 



378 Touring in 1600 

matters accruing from their experience abroad, 
so many instances have already shown themselves 
that the burden of proof falls on the other side; 
whether, that is, any contemporary effort worth 
making, any contemporary achievement to which 
we are indebted, has not been in some degree fash- 
ioned and vitalized by influences due to travel. 46 If 
one further instance, typical of much else, is to be 
chosen, it may be pointed out how almost every- 
thing that contributes to the material attractions 
of Dublin is due to those who, in exile on the Con- 
tinent, saw the gain that lay in planning a city 
finely. Further still, their knowledge of languages, 
acquired at a time when vernaculars were coming 
into their own, resulted in an infusion into each 
vernacular of the additions it needed to assimilate 
to enable it to fulfil its potentialities for the pur- 
poses both of every-day life and of life at its best. 
It is curious and significant that the Pole who has 
just been quoted as an opponent of travel, Koch- 
anowski, learnt the value and, one might even 
say, the possibility, of using the vernacular as 
a medium of literature from associating with 
members of the "Pleiade" in France. 

Far above these and the rest; far outweighing, 
too, all imaginable drawbacks, was the value of 
the central idea, that of taking those who were 
to enjoy the widest opportunities of usefulness 
and influence, and bringing them, when their con- 
scious receptivity was at its highest, into personal 



The Purse 379 

contact with the whole of that world in which, 
for which, and with which, their lives were to be 
spent. That was its value at that time. But it 
had a future as well as a present value, inasmuch 
as the results of the system were cumulative, more 
especially in so far as it served the purpose of 
bringing these younger men into touch with the 
best teachers and those older men of the finest 
achievements, to gain acquaintance with whom 
was always insisted on as an object second to 
none in importance. As Bacon said, these trav- 
ellers were "Merchants of Light." They con- 
tributed a definite share towards strengthening 
and widening what is the only effective agency 
of real advance in civilisation, "that better world 
of men," of which the contemporary poet Daniel 
was reminded by the "Essays" of Montaigne. 

. . . That better world of men, 
Whose spirits are of one community, 
Whom neither oceans, deserts, rocks nor sands 
Can keep from th' intertraffic of the mind. 



SPECIAL REFERENCES 

CHAPTER 1 

SOME OF THE TOURISTS 

1. Purchas, viii, 258. 

2. A. Schaube: "Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Standigen 
Gesandtschaften," in vol. 10 of Mittheilungen des Instituts fur 
ester reichische Geschichtsforschung, 1889. What follows is mainly 
from "Les Commencements de la Diplomatic," three articles 
by Ernest Nys in Revue de Droit International, vols. 15 and 16, 
1883-84. Cf. also V. E. Hrabar's De Legatis et Legationibus, 1906, 
a collection of treatises on the subject up to 1625, some unpub- 
lished ones printed in full, with summaries of those better known. 

3. Harleian MS. 3822, fol. 599. And Viaggi of Gian Vincenzo 
Imperiale, p. 149, vol. 29 of Atti della Societa Ligure di Storia 
Patria, 1898. 

4. Cf. Antonio de Beatis, pp. 156, 157. 

5. George Chapman, Tears of Peace. 

6. Cf. especially the beginning of Jacopo Soranzo's narrative 
in Alberi's Relazioni Venete, Series III, ii, 212. 

7. Life and Letters, i, 319. 

8. First Fruits, p. 18. 

9. Calendars of State Papers, Fen., v, 109 and 382. 

10. Hist. MSS. Com., 1899, vol. 46 (Duke of Buccleugh's 
Winwood Papers, i), 120, 121. 

11. Einstein, p. 380. 

12. Operette, ii, 24. 

13. Hantzsch, Deutsche Reisende, p. 2. 

14. Cf. Stahlin's Sir Francis Walsingham und seine Zeit, i, 

79-84. 

CHAPTER II 

GUIDE-BOOKS AND GUIDES 

1. See Faunt's "Discourses touching the office of Principal 
Secretary of State," in Eng. Hist. Rev., July, 1905. 

2. Falkiner, p. 117. 

3. Rohricht, "Bibliotheca geographica Palaestinse," 118. In 
the London Library is a copy of an edition printed at Ronciglione, 
161 5, which seems to have escaped the notice of all bibliographers. 



382 Special References 

4. Bargrave. See under Bodleian MSS. in Bibliography 
(Rawlinson, C. 799). 

5. Quoted by Einstein, p. 101. 

6. Printed by Falkiner. See Bibliography. 

7. See Cal. S. P. Ven., vol. ii (under "Mole," in the index). 

8. Grose and Astle's Antiquarian Repertory, 1805, iv, 374-380. 

CHAPTER III 

ON THE WATER 

1. M. Ritter, Die Union und Heinrich IV, Munich, 1874, 
p. 87. 

2. Hatfield MSS., ix, 127 (Hist. MSS. Com.). 

3. Birch, Court and Times 0} James I, i, 139. 

4. See contemporary drawing to scale, reproduced in vol. 5 
of Hakluyt's Voyages. 

5. Hans von Morgenthal (1476) in Rohricht, pp. 14—15. 

6. Zuallardo's II Devotissimo Viaggio di Gierusalemme, Rome, 

1595, P- 18. 

7. Sir Henry Ellis, Original Letters, Series III, ii, 277-293. 

8. Fahie, Life 0} Galileo, pp. 173-177. 

9. Hatfield MSS., x, 43. 

10. Harris, Navigantium . . . Bibliotheca, ii, 461. 

11. W. F. Smith's translation, to which, with Heulhard's 
Rabelais, ses voyages en Italie, 1891, 1 am indebted for all references 
to Rabelais. 

12. Brit. Mus. MS. Lansdown, 720. 

13. R. Symonds (Brit. Mus. MS. Harleian, 943). 

14. C. A. J. Skeel, Travels in the First Century after Christ, 
p. 114. 

15. Brit. Mus. MS. Lansdown, 720, and Villamont's Voyages 
give more details than any others concerning Italian waterways; 
but cf. Tasso's letter to Ercole de' Contrari comparing France and 
Italy. All these are ignored by 

16. Sir E. Sullivan in The Nineteenth Century, August, 1 908. 

CHAPTER IV 

CHRISTIAN EUROPE 

Part I — European Europe 

1. J. N. Figgis, From Gerson to Grotius, 1907, p. 241. 

2. Brit. Mus. MS. Harleian, 943, fol. 33. 



Special References 383 

3. W. H. Woodward, Studies in Education, passim, especially 
p. 172. 

4. Gazette des Beaux Arts, He periode, v, 198. 

5. Smith's Wotton, i, 355, note. 

6. His narrative is in vol. 7 of Churchill's Voyages. 

7. Howell, Epistolce Ho-Eliance, 161 9. 

8. Barozzi and Berchet, Relazioni (Inghilterra), pp. 34, 35, 
and 98. 

9. Cal. S. P. Ven., xiii, 40, 41. 

10. Harleian Voyages, i, 1 78 1. 

11. Hatfield MSS., v, 462. 

12. Barozzi, op. cit., p. 27. 

13. Bodleian MS., Rawlinson, C. 799. 

14. The following details are taken mainly from T. A. Fischer's 
Scots in East and West Prussia and Scots in Germany ; the Scottish 
Historical Society have further information in preparation. For 
Scots abroad generally, cf. W. K. Leask's Musa Latina Aber- 
donensis, Aberdeen University, 1910. 

15. Bodl. MS., Rawlinson, C. 799. 

16. " La Cena de le Cenere," Dialogo Secondo. 

17. De Villers. See Bibliography under "Aarssen." 

Part II— The Unvisited North 

1. Translated speech to the "Collegio" at Venice, Cal. S. P. 
Ven., x, 346. 

2. Payen of Meaux. 

3. Churchill's Voyages, iv, 822. 

4. Barberini, in Adelung, i, 237. 

5. Cf. Dr. Vladimir Milkowicz' Eastern Europe (vol. 5 of 
the translation of Helmolt's History of the World), pp. 524, 
557, 572, and 610. 

6. In Adelung, i, 435. 

Part III — The Misunderstood West 

1. Britannia, Holland's translation, 1610, p. 577. 

2. In 1670. — Hakluyt Society, vol. 87, p. III. 

3. Harleian MS. 3822, fol. 604. 

4. Erich Lassota; extract in Liske's Viajes . . . por Espana 
{cf. Bibliography under "Sobieski") from R. Schottin's Tage- 
buch des Erich Lassota von Steblau (1573-94), Halle, 1866. 



384 Special References 

5. Sobieski. 

6. Good's account, appended to Camden's description of 
Ireland (Holland's translation, 1610, p. 142). 

7. Chiericati. 

8. O'Connor, Elizabethan Ireland, pp. 1-4. 

9. Acta SS. March 17, p. 590. 

10. Smith, Camdeni . . . Epistola, 1691, pp. 68, 69. 

11. Cal. S. P. Irish, i, 439, and ii, liii-lv. 

12. Jouvin de Rochefort (in Falkiner). 

CHAPTER V 

MOHAMMEDAN EUROPE 

Part I — The Grand Signor 

1. Parker Soc, xxvii, 522. 

2. Alberi's " Relazioni," vi. 307. 

3. Letters, Camd. Soc, p. 61. 

4. Hist. MSS. Com., Ormonde Papers, New Series, i, 25. 

5. Works, 1744, i, 8. 

6. Wallington, Historical Notices, ii, 266. 

7. Melanges Historiques, Paris, 1886, v, 601-638. 

8. Hist. MSS. Com., Hatfield MSS., xi, 172. 

9. Serrano y Sanz, c. 8. 

10. Cambridge Modern History, iii, 264. 

11. Bodl. MS., Rawlinson, C. 799, fol. 12. 

12. "The Three (Sherley) Brothers," 34, 35. 

Part II — Jerusalem and the Way Thither 

1. Rohricht, p. 314: "Mixolydian" = G Minor. 

2. Hakluyt's Voyages, v, 204-207, and Archives de la Soc. de 
Vhistoire de Fribourg, v, 235-236. 

3. Zuallardo, 77 Devotissimo Viaggio di Gierusalemme (ed. 
Rome, 1595, pp. 48-50), confirmed by the experiences of Kiechel 
(Hantzsch, 109, no) in the same year. 

4. Brit. Mus., Egerton MS., 311, fol. 142. 

5. Quoted from Egerton MS., 2615, in preface to catalogue of 
Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 

6. Nord und Sud, October, 1887, 52, 53. 

7. Printed by Carmoly. 



Special References 385 



CHAPTER VI 

INNS 

1. Brit. Mus. MS. Lansdown, 720. 

2. Charles Ogier, Ephemerides, 1656, p. 327. 

3. Quoted by Rye in his Preface. 

4. Sir Richard Wynn. 

5. Eva Scott, Travels of the King, p. 421. 

6. Captain John Smith, Accidence for Young Seamen, 1626. 

7. R. Payne, in Tracts relating to Ireland, published by the 
Irish Archaeological Soc, vol. 1, part 2, p. 5. 

8. Antonio de Beatis. 

9. Brit. Mus. MS. Lansdown, 720. 

10. Moryson, who, with Montaigne, contributes most to our 
knowledge of baths. For Aachen cf. Giustiniani and Sastrow. 

CHAPTER VII 

ON THE ROAD 

1. Alberi, Relazioni Venete, ii, 3, 89. 

2. Brit. Mus. MS. Lansdown, 720. 

3. Bodl. MS., Rawlinson, C. 799. 

4. Van Buchell, Paris ed., pp. 122, 133. 

5. Brit. Mus. MS. Lansdown, 720, the account in which 
of Mt. Cenis is better than any, except perhaps Villamont's. Be- 
sides these two and those mentioned in the text, Montaigne, 
Hentzner, Locatelli, Reresby, Evelyn, and Lithgow give more 
details than others. 

6. By Audebert. 

7. W. A. B. Coolidge, The Alps in Nature and History, p. 205. 

8. On August 5, Mr. Coolidge says; but Audebert says the 
festival of the Assumption (15th). 

9. Opere: Rossini's edition, xiv, 337. 

10. (Euvres, in Bibliotheque Elzevirienne, i, 393. 

11. Preface to his De Lacte et Operibus Lactariis, 1543. 

12. Cf. Osenbriiggen's "Die Entwicklungsgeschichte des 
Schweizreisens" in his Wanderstudien aus der Schzveiz (Schaff- 
hausen, 1867), i, 1-78; also G. Steinhausen's "Beitrage zur 
Geschichte des Reisens" printed in instalments in Das Ausland, 
1893. For a very interesting survey of the subject over a wider 



3 86 Special References 

period (2000 years) see vol. I of Friedlander's "Sittengeschichte 
Roms." 

13. Carta del viage a Andalucia, in Obras, Ibarra's edition, i, 
328-331. 

14. Peter Mundy, p. 144 and note; and Howell, Epistolce Ho- 
Eliana, Jacob's ed., i, 54. 

CHAPTER Vlli 

THE PURSE 

1. Whitehead, Gaspard de Coligny, p. 25. 

2. Rohricht, p. 293. Cf. also Solerti's Vita di Tasso, i, 137, 
note 1, for Cardinal Luigi d'Este's expenses in France (1570). 

3. H. Weber, /. G. von Aschhausen, Fursibischof, Wurzburg, 
1889, p. 30. 

4. Smith, Sir Henry Wotton, i, 48 note. 

5. In Bacon's advice to Villiers, Spedding's Life, vi, 43. Cf. 
"She [i. e. Queen Elizabeth] hath had many Secretaries that 
have been great Travaylers," from a dialogue by Sir John 
Davies, in Grosart's edition of his poems, I, 18. 

6. Brit. Mus. MS. Lansdown, 720. 

7. Both in Rohricht, p. 269. 

8. Bodleian MS., Rawlinson, D. 122, at the end. 

9. Rohricht, p. 293. 

10. T. Tobler, Denkbldtter, 1853, p. 569. 

11. Cf. references collected in Variorum ed. of Shakespeare's 
Tempest, p. 180, and in Ben Jonson's Works (1875), ii, 70 ("Every 
Man out of his Humour"); also Davies' Epigrams, no. 42 (Gro- 
sart's ed., p. 343). Writers on insurance ignore all these refer- 
ences and usually content themselves with borrowing without 
acknowledgement what Hendriks wrote in his Contributions to 
the History of Insurance (pp. 35-37) as long ago as 1851. Hamon's 
Histoire Generate de V Assurance (p. 107) and Journal of the In- 
stitute of Actuaries, vol. 25, p. 121, give detail previously un- 
printed. For ransom-insurance, see also Walford's Insurance 
Cyclopaedia, under "Captivity" and "Casualty." Not one of 
these authors or editors refers to Tobler (see previous note), or 
mentions any actual transaction, not even Henry Moryson's. For 
the other transaction here quoted, see an extract from George 
Stoddard's MS. accounts in H. Hall's Society in the Elizabethan 
Age, p. 53- 






Special References 387 

12. Hatfield MSS., x, 135. 

13. Cal. S. P. For. 1581-82, p. 43; confirmed by Bodl. MS., 
Rawlinson, C. 799. 

14. Brit. Mus. MS. Harleian, 943. 

15. Cal. S. P. Ven., xiv, 569. 

16. By Golnitz, pp. 665, 666. 

17. Brit. Mus. MS. Harleian, 943. 

18. Bodl. MS., Rawlinson, C. 799. 

19. Cal. S. P. Ven., 392. 

20. Brit. Mus. MS. Harleian, 943. 

21. Giustiniani. 

22. Hakluyt Soc, 87, pp. 114, 115. 

23. Moryson, the main authority for the tourists' money 
matters, mentions the practice, but an actual instance of its 
usefulness will be found related by Sobieski in the extract printed 
by Liske. 

24. Hatfield MSS. (1595), p. 184. 

25. Hatfield MSS., x, 460; cf. Duke of Buccleugh's Winwood 
Papers (Hist. MSS. Com., 1899, 46), i, 188. 

26. Rohricht, pp. 273, 274. 

27. Cal. S. P. Ven., ix, 237. 

28. Montagu Papers (Hist. MSS. Com., 1900, 45), p. 124. 

29. Bodl. MS., Rawlinson, C. 799. 

30. Brit. Mus. MS., Sloane, 4217. 

31. Tommaseo, Relations des Ami ass adeurs Venitiens sur . . . 
France, 1838, ii, 284. 

32. See note 11. 

33. Rohricht, pp. 248, 249. 

34. Bodl. MS., Rawlinson, C. 799. 

35. Birch, Court and Times of James I, i, 139. 

36. Locatelli. 

37. J. A. Fischer, Scots in Germany, p. 45. Cf. also A. Schultze's 
Ueber Gasterecht und Gastgerichte in den deutschen Stddten des 
Mittelalters in Historische Zeitsckrift, 1908, pp. 473-528. 

38. Taylor, International Law, sub voce. 

39. De Villers (see Bibliography under Aarssen). 

40. E. Nys, op. cit. vol. 16, p. 189. 

41. Cf. Helmolt's History of the World, vii, 1 22-133. 

42. Taken mainly from accounts printed in Morel-Fatio's, 
LEspagne au 16 e et au 17 e siecle. 






388 Special References 

43. Works, 1839, i, xix-xxiv. 

44. (Euvres, 1723, ii, 262. 

45. Hist. MSS. Com., Various (Miss Buxton's MSS.), ii, 
274. 

46. Cf., in particular, under " Ideas " in the index. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

O blessed Letters! that combine in one, 
All Ages past and make one live with all; 
By you, we do confer with who are gone, 
And the dead-living unto Council call. 
By you, the unborn shall have communion 
Of what we feel and what doth us befall. 

Samuel Daniel 
(1562-1619; in "Musophilus"). 

The literature of the subject as a whole is absolutely 
inexhaustible, the contemporary part alone being sufficient 
to provide anyone with recreation — and sleep — for ten 
years. Including a few whose accounts I have had to read 
in translation, or even in paraphrase (such as that of 
Bisoni mentioned below), the number of travellers on 
whose evidence I have drawn first-hand amounts to over 
two hundred and thirty; but this number could certainly 
be doubled, perhaps trebled, by any one who found it 
practicable to devote to the subject all the time and 
money it could employ, inasmuch as there are probably 
few libraries of long standing which do not contain a 
manuscript account of a journey at this period; some 
contain them by the dozen. Besides this, there are many 
printed accounts little less inaccessible than most manu- 
scripts. The most convenient library for consulting con- 
temporary editions of these printed narratives is Marsh's 
Library, Dublin, where one set of shelves is given up to 
them; there they will be found by the score, besides 
having a sub-heading ("Itinera") to themselves in the 
catalogue. 

This appendix, therefore, can concern itself with no- 



390 Bibliography 

thing but actual accounts of journeys, and that only in 
some abbreviated form. The method followed is this. 
First comes a list of the MSS. that I have been able to ob- 
tain the opportunities to read (very few, unfortunately); 
then another list, of printed books, consisting of those 
which are bibliographies or serve as such, and of accounts 
of journeys not mentioned in these bibliographical works: 
together with some notes on certain recent editions of 
books which are there mentioned. 

Asterisks indicate bibliographies; square brackets, books 
my knowledge of which is second-hand: while, in order 
to obviate needless suffering on the part of any who may 
feel inclined for a little further acquaintance with these 
accounts, the names of the authors of the more readable 
are printed in heavier type. It may as well be said that the 
value of most of these narratives consists simply in their 
having been written three hundred years ago. 

The second list is one of authors' names, but topo- 
graphical guidance is provided in the index by means of the 
abbreviation "BiBL"[iography] added as a sub-heading 
to place-names, followed by the names of the authors who 
are of assistance with regard to that place; e. g.: — 

"Spain" 

Bibl. : Wynn. 
After such names will sometimes be found numbers; these 
refer back to the Table of Special References. It is taken 
for granted that every one of these bibliographical books 
will be recognized as adding information about many coun- 
tries, since however strictly the scope of each may be 
limited, it will include travellers who came from, and 
went in, all directions. 

References to accounts, generally fragments, which 
have appeared in periodical form only, have had to be 
restricted to the more interesting; most of which are to 



A SCHOLAR TRAVELLER 

Francois de Maulde {1556-Qj); portrait by J. Sadeler (Bibl. Roy- 
ale de Belgique). He was only about thirty when this portrait was 
done, but his sufferings as a traveller {see Bibliography) would alone 
account for his weary look. The inscription belonging to it runs: — ■ 

" Tristia sive secunda fluant, in utrumque parato 
Dulce mihi in libris vivere, dulce mori est." 



Bibliography 391 

be found in the Table of Special References. For further 
sources not indicated in detail, bibliographies of national 
history, correspondence, biographies, records of embassies 
and prefaces to the last-named, especially to the Venetian 
"Relazioni" edited by Barozzi and Berchet, have all 
proved particularly useful. All the later publications of 
the Historical MSS. Commission (the earlier contain in- 
dications of MSS. in private hands, but no more than the 
titles are given) and all the Calendars of State Papers 
which include the required years, have been examined up 
to the end of the publications for 1908, at least. 

As to non-contemporary sources of information, I have 
used them only for negative purposes — to decide which 
of two travellers is the bigger liar, for instance; or to avoid 
displaying more ignorance than is necessary on those 
elementary points of geography which everybody is sup- 
posed to know and nobody does; etc., etc. Some excep- 
tions to this procedure seemed reasonable; but these are 
made obvious. Any statement of objective fact, indeed, 
seems to me impracticable in connection with such a sub- 
ject as this. My aim has been merely at approximate sub- 
jective accuracy; to study, that is, the psychology of the 
subject, conscious and sub-conscious; and its phenomena 
only in so far as they are causes of, or symbolize, the psy- 
chology. Students are requested to hear this statement 
with the ear of faith, remembering that all such attempts 
have to be heavily peptonized if expenses are to be paid, 
as this one's must be, by those in whom the spirit indeed is 
willing but the digestion weak. And even students — ! 

But when all limitations of aim have been granted, it 
must be admitted further that a summary of the experi- 
ences and thoughts of scores of individuals, and of the 
thousands they stand for, over a period of more than a 
century and extending over all one continent and into 



39 2 Bibliography 

fractions of two others, must be mainly remarkable as an 
anthology of half-truths. 

Further still, to those who may notice that the half- 
truths are less stereotyped, the detail less hackneyed, than 
might have been the case, I should like to say that the 
credit of that is largely due to the London Library, with- 
out which this book would probably not have seemed 
worth writing or worth publishing; and that my debt is by 
no means only to the books and to the librarian's readiness 
to add to them, but also to the exceptional ability, and 
equally exceptional willingness, of the staff to help. It is 
only fair to mention, too, in speaking of bibliographical 
assistance, how much I am indebted to that furnished in 
the numbers of " Revue Historique." Acknowledgments 
are also due to the owners of the originals of the illustra- 
tions. No trouble has been spared to make the book the 
best illustrated existing for the period dealt with, with the 
necessary exception of the two quarto volumes of Van 
Vaernewyck's "Memoires d'un Patricien Gantois"; all 
the photographs have been specially taken (except that of 
Rabelais' receipt) from the best procurable originals, often 
unique ones. For translations and information from Pol- 
ish sources my sincere thanks are due to members of the 
Polish Circle in London, Mr. A. Zaleski in particular; and 
for help in various ways, which includes encouragement, 
to many others, especially Mr. Hubert Hall and Professor 
Gollancz, and, most of all, to my wife. 



Bibliography 393 

MSS. USED 

Bodleian Library. 

Rawlinson, C. 799. R. Bargrave's narrative, already 
frequently quoted: reliable, & especially useful for eco- 
nomic data. He went to Constantinople (1646), returned 
overland (1648) ; went again (1654), returning via Venice. 

D. 120 Anon. France, Italy, & Switzerland (1648-49). 

D. 121. Anon. Italy (1651). 

D. 122. John Ashley: account of a stay at Jerusalem 
in 1675: details of expenses at the end. 

D. 1285. Sir T. Abdy. France & Italy 1633-35. 

D. 1286. Anon. Italy & Spain 1605-06. 

British Museum. 

Add. 34177. ff. 22-50. "Account of a journey over 
Mont Cenis into Italy": 1661. 

Harleian, 288. "Direction for some person who 
intended to travel into France & Italy; being a short 
account of the roads, chief cities & of some rarities 
worthy to be seen." (End of the 16th century?) 

Harleian, 942/3 and 1278. Note-books of Richard 
Symonds used in France & Italy (1648-49), no. 943 
being the more valuable as containing his diary & 
detailed expenses. 

Harleian, 3822. Journey throughout Spain (1599- 
1600) by Diego Cuelbis, the author, & his companion 
Joel Koris. Written in Spanish although the author 
was of Leipzig. 

Egerton, 311. Visits to shrines in Spain, Provence, 
& Italy in 1587 by a proxy of Philip II. 

Lansdown, 720. The frequent references to this MS. 
will have shown how useful it is. Among many other 
points that give it value are the excellent drawing of the 



394 Bibliography 

bust of Petrarch at Arqua, soon afterwards destroyed, 
and a copy of the subsequently effaced epitaph of 
Clement Marot at Turin (fol. 37b). The MS. is anony- 
mous, but the author may be identified as Nicolas Au- 
debert (1556-98), son of Germain Audebert. Beck- 
mann (q. v.) had already established the identity of 
"le sieur Audeber," whose "Voyage et Observations en 
Italie" were published at Paris in 1656, with Nicolas 
Audebert, and that the author of the printed book is 
the same as he who wrote the MS. is suggested by the 
relations of both with Aldrovandi (MS. fol. 101 b). 
More definite evidence is obtainable from an article 
on Nicolas in the Revue Archeologique (3rd series, vol. 
10, pp. 315-322), by means of the dates on his letters 
written from Italy. In view of this identification it may 
be worth mentioning that the author's birthday was 
April 25 (fol. 558) & that he was elected "president de 
l'Universite" of Bologna in Nov. 1575 (fol. 86 b), a year 
in which the name of the rector has not hitherto been 
known. 

Sloane, 4217. A honeymoon trip, a pilgrimage, & a 
tragedy combined. Lady Catherine Whetenal, the sub- 
ject (it is written by her servant, Richard Lascells), 
after being married at Louvain, travelled to Rome for 
the year of jubilee, 1650: but on her return journey gave 
birth to a still-born child at Padua, & there died. 

Stowe, 180. Constantinople & the Levant in 1609, as 
seen by a "Mr. Stampes"; its value consists in its ex- 
emplification of the limitations of the ordinary tourist. 

Tournay Library. 

159. Journey of the Comte de Solre, Sieur de 
Molenbais, from Solre, near Dinant, in Belgium, 
to the court of Philip II of Spain 1588: via Genoa. 



Bibliography 395 

160. Journeys of J. de Winghe, founder of the 
library (1587-1607). Earlier journeys to Italy, 
Vienna, & Prague; later ones to shorter distances 
around Tournai. 



PRINTED BOOKS 

Aarssen, F. van, belonged to a Dutch family which was 
accustomed to take part in public affairs (cf. espe- 
cially preface to "Lettres inedites de Francois 
d'Aarssen (his father) a Jacques Valcke," 1 599-1603, 
by J. Nouaillac, Paris, 1908), and there is record of 
some journeying by himself & relatives in the middle 
of the 17th century, as part of the training of the 
younger generation. The very interesting "Voyage 
d'Espagne" (published 1656) attributed to him is 
now known to have been written by Antoine de 
Brunei, his companion; but Aarssen's own notes on 
the preceding journey, through Italy, will be found 
in vol. 3 of the "Atti del Congresso Internazionale 
di Scienze Storiche," Rome, 1906. The "Journal 
d'un Voyage a Paris" of the cousins of the above, 
the Sieurs de Villers, was published by A. P. Faugere 
(1862) [and by L. Marillier, 1899]. 

*Adelung, F. von. "Krit-literarische Ubersicht der 
Reisenden in Russland bis 1700": 2 vols. 1846. The 
promises implied by the title are fulfilled so thoroughly 
& so exhaustively that the "Catalogue . . . des Rus- 
sica" published by the Imperial Library of St. Peters- 
burg in 1873 (Index of travellers thither up to 1700, 
vol. 2, p. 702) in no way supersedes the former, 
although it has some additions to make. 

*Amat di San Filippo, P. "Biografia dei Viaggiatori 



396 Bibliography 

Italiani, colla bibliografia delle loro opere" Rome, 
1882. (Societa Geografica Italiana.) 

*Babeau, A. "Les Voyageurs en France, depuis la Re- 
naissance jusqu'a la Revolution." 1885. 

Beatis, Antonio de, accompanied Cardinal Luigi d'Ara- 
gona through Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, 
& France (15 17-18). His narrative is printed in 
L. Pastor's "Erlauterungen . . . zu Jannsen's Ge- 
schichte," IV, 4, Freiburg, 1905, with a detailed 
German paraphrase, & notes which add very greatly 
to its value. A readable English paraphrase will be 
found in the Quarterly Review, July, 1908. The 
author was an acute and observant man with wide 
interests, who travelled under the most favourable 
conditions. He also came into contact with many of 
the most attractive personalities in Europe during his 
journey, among them Lionardo da Vinci, particulars 
of a long conversation with whom at Amboise he 
records. 

Bertie, Robert (afterwards Lord Willoughby). Letters 
written while in France (1598-99) are printed in the 
Earl of Ancaster's MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.) 1907 
(pp. 340-348) together with one from his brother 
Henry (pp. 390-392; 1617; Constantinople & Italy), 
and diary of another Robert (1647-49) during travel 
in France, (pp. 418-421). 

*Beckmann, J. "Literatur der altern Reisebeschreib- 
ungen": 2 vols. Gottingen, 1807-10. Contains good 
notices of many very rare books. 

Bisoni, Bernardo, accompanied Vincenzo Giustiniani, 
Marchese di Bassano, through Germany, the Low 
Countries, England, and France, in 1606. His MS., 
now at the Vatican, has been paraphrased into French 
by E. Rodocanachi (1899) under the title of "Aven- 



Bibliography 397 

tures d'un Grand Seigneur Italien h travers l'Europe" 
with appendices. 

Bonnaffe, E. "Voyages et Voyageurs de la Renaissance," 
1895. In the main a pleasant resume of accounts 
that are common property, but contains much sup- 
plementary detail not used by other writers. 

*Boucher de la Richarderie, G. "Bibliotheque Univer- 
selle des Voyages; 1808;" vols. 1, 2, 3. 

Brereton: Sir William. Travels in great Britain & Low 
Countries, 1634-35. Printed by Chetham Society, 
vol. 1. 

Breuning von Buchenbach, Hans Jakob; well known as an 
Oriental traveller, also came as ambassador to Eng- 
land, 1595, from Duke Frederick of Wurttemberg. 
Rye (q. v.) refers to him, but was dependent on 
Sattler's history of Wurttemberg & on some letters 
among English State Papers; but Breuning's own 
detailed account of the journey has since been 
printed by the Stuttgart Lit. Verein (vol. 81). 

*Brown, P. Hume. "Early Travellers in Scotland," 1891. 

Buchell, Arend van, An antiquary of Utrecht, whose 
"Commentarius . . . rerum quotidianarum" includes 
records of journeys between 1584 and 1591. The 
text of his "Iter Italicum" has been printed by 
Soc. Romana di Storia Patria (1900-02) with notes by 
Rodolfo Lanciani; a translation of the parts concern- 
ing Germany begins in vol. 84 of the Hist. Verein fur 
den Niederrhein, 1907 & of those concerning France 
under the title of "Description de Paris" in the 
Memoires of the Soc. de l'histoire de Paris, vol. 26, 
1899. Brief selections from the whole in the original 
Latin, forming a varied & useful miscellany, will 
be found in vol. 21 of Series III of the Historisch 
Gezelschap te Utrecht (1907). 



398 Bibliography 

Busbecq's letters (see chapter i) are most conveniently 
read in Forster & Daniel's "Life & Letters." 1881. 
All the letters are translated there. 

Busino, Orazio; chaplain to the Venetian Ambassador 
Contarini in England and Spain (1617-18). For an 
account of the MSS. in which he tells his experiences 
with exceptional brightness & point, see Barozzi & 
Berchet's "Relazioni," Series IV, pp. 192-195. Raw- 
don Brown's translation of what referred to England 
is among the transcripts he presented to the Record 
Office in London; a resume of this was printed in the 
Quarterly Review, July, 1857. On the latter I have 
had to be wholly dependent, but part of the transla- 
tion has just become available in print in the Calen- 
dar of the State Papers (Venetian) for 1617-19. 

Carmoly, E. "Itineraires de la Terre-Sainte, " 1847. All 
the itineraries are Jewish ones dating from the 13th 
to 17th centuries, translated from the Hebrew. 

[Carve, Thomas; "Itinerarium," mainly in Germany 
during the Thirty Years' War; but also Low Coun- 
tries, England & Ireland. Rare, quaint & valuable. 
In three parts; only complete edition, 1859. Cf. Diet. 
Nat. Biog.] 

Casola, Pietro. M. Margaret Newett's "Canon Pietro 
Casola's Pilgrimage to Jerusalem," 1907: no. 5 of the 
Historical Series in the Publications of the Univer- 
sity of Manchester. This pilgrimage took place in 
1494, but the editor's researches among Venetian 
archives throw much fresh light on the later phases 
of the subject. 

Cecily, princess; see Roy. Hist. Soc, vol. 12. 

♦Chandler, F. W., "Literature of Roguery," 1899, con- 
tains a very full bibliography of picaresque literature 
& an analysis of much of it. 



Bibliography 399 

Chaworth, Sir G., went as special ambassador to Brussels 
in 162 1. His account of the journey & of his prepa- 
rations for it are printed in A. J. Kempe's "Losely 
MSS." 1835. 

Chiericati, Francesco. His letter concerning Ireland with 
three concerning England are printed in "Quattro 
Documenti d' Inghilterra ed uno di Spagna dell' 
Archivio Gonzaga di Mantova," edited by Attilio 
Portioli, Mantua, 1868. For further information and 
more letters see biography by B. Morsolin. 

Clara Eugenia, the Infanta. The letter already referred 
to is printed in the "Boletin de la Real Academia de 
la Historia," Madrid, vol. 49, pp. 30-50. 

*Cobham, C. D. "Excerpta Cypria," 1908. Extracts 
from the accounts of writers who visited Cyprus, to- 
gether with an exceptionally thorough bibliography. 
As so many who went to Jerusalem touched at Cyprus, 
the book may serve as a bibliography to chapter 5; 
also for travel generally over a wider period than this. 

Courthop, Sir G. (France, Italy, Malta, Constantinople, 
1636-39.) In Camden Soc. Miscellany, vol. 11. 

Cuellar, Captain, who was wrecked on the Irish coast in a 
ship which sailed with the Spanish Armada of 1588, 
wrote a letter describing his adventures in Ireland & 
Scotland which has several times been translated or 
paraphrased since the publication of the text in 
Duro's "La Armada Invencible" (1885). The best 
version is that in Allingham's "Adventures of Cap- 
tain Cuellar in Connacht & Ulster," 1897. 

*Cust, Mrs. Henry. "Gentlemen Errant," 1909. Anno- 
tated & explanatory paraphrases of the experiences 
of Leo von Rosmital, Wilwolt von Schaumburg, 
Frederick II, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, & Hans 
von Schweinichen. The dates range between 1465 & 



400 Bibliography 

1602 & the countries visited include most of Europe. 
Of the bibliography the utmost that can be said is 
that it is worth consulting; but the rest of the book 
is valuable as summarizing much that has not been 
really accessible; and is very readable. 

*Dallam, Thomas. See Hakluyt Soc, vol. 87. 

"Diarium Terrae Sanctae," a quarterly periodical begin- 
ning March 1, 1908, issued from the monastery of San 
Salvatore at Jerusalem dealing with the work carried 
on there, past and present. It came under my notice 
too late to use. 

*Einstein, L. "The Italian Renaissance in England," 
1902. The subject frequently comes into touch with 
touring & the bibliography is very full, especially as 
regards guide-books. 

Falkiner, C. L. "Illustrations of Irish History & Topo- 
graphy," 1904. Contains extracts from the narratives 
of several travellers of the 16th & 17th centuries who 
visited Ireland, including that of Josias Bodley & 
some otherwise unprinted paragraphs from Moryson. 

Fanshawe, Lady Ann. Two editions of her reminiscences 
have been published recently, 1905 & 1907. The 
latter is by far the more fully annotated and authori- 
tative. 

*[Farinelli, A. "Apuntes y divagaciones bibliogrdficas 
sobre viajes y viajeros por Espana y Portugal," with 
a supplement, "Mas apuntes," etc., Madrid, 1903.] 

*Fouche-Delbosc, R., published a detailed bibliography 
of journeys in Spain & Portugal in the "Revue His- 
panique, " vol. 3, 1896, issued separately in the same 
year ("Bibliographic des Voyages en Espagne et en 
Portugal"). It is absolutely indispensable not only 
as regards travel within those countries, but outside 
them as well. 



Bibliography 



401 



Guzman, Alonso de. See Hakluyt Soc, vol. 29. 

*Hagemans, G. "Relations inedites d'ambassadeurs 
venitiens dans le Pays-Bas," 1865. Besides the direct 
bearing on the subject that all such "Relazioni" have, 
the notes to this book contain references to several 
still unpublished MSS. 

*Hantzsch, Victor. "Deutsche Reisende des i6ten Jahr- 
hunderts"; Leipzig, 1895, part 4 of vol. 1 of Leipziger 
Studien aus dem Gebiet der Geschichte. Brief, lucid 
notices of many typical adventurers of German blood 
all over the world in the 16th century. Indispensable 
by reason of its very full references to books & MSS. 

Hoby, Sir Thomas (France, Germany, Italy, Flanders, 
1547-64); in Camden Soc. Miscellany, vol. 10. 

Khitrowo, B. de. "Itineraires Russes en Orient." French 
translations of Russian MSS., published by the Soc. 
de l'Orient Latin. The promised second volume does 
not seem to have been issued, but though only a few 
of the itineraries in this first volume are late enough 
to be available for questions of fact, the whole is very 
valuable as a revelation of temperament. 

Lauder, J., of Fountainhall. See Scot. Hist. Soc, vol. 36. 

*£ozinski, W., "Zycie polskie w dawnych wiekach wiek 
xvi-xvii." (" Polish Life in the 16th & 17th centu- 
ries"), 2nd edition, Lemberg, 1908. Contains notices 
of Polish travel and travellers. 

*Locatelli, S., an Italian priest who went to Paris & back 
(1664-65) & whose narrative has been in part trans- 
lated from the Italian MS. by A. Vautier ("Voyage de 
France," 1905), who adds a good bibliography & notes. 
Its value consists in the author belonging to that type 
of man who does not hesitate to write what most 
people are content, sometimes more than content, 
to keep to themselves. Combined with his extreme 



402 Bibliography 

poverty of mind & vanity, this leads him into relating 
many trivialities which help to define more clearly 
the incidentals, & the psychology, of contemporary 
touring. 

Maulde, Francois de (Modius); for the adventures of this 
learned Fleming (1556-97) mainly in Germany, see 
two articles by A. Roersch in the Revue Generate. 
May & June, 1907, based on his MS. autobiography 
at Munich. [Also P. Lehmann's "Franciscus Modius 
als Handschriftenforscher," 1908, in Quellen und 
Untersuchungen zur lateinischen Philologie des Mit- 
telalters, III, 1.] 

Montaigne, Michel de. English translation of his Journal 
by W. G. Waters, 1903. [Latest edition of the text 
edited by L. Lautrey, Paris, 1906.] 

*D'Ancona's edition (Citta di Castello, 1889: 2nd ed. 
1895) contains an excellent critical bibliography 
concerned with foreigners' travel in Italy. 

Moryson, Fynes, published his "Itinerary" in 161 7 in a 
form that has proved the equivalent of a burial. A 
fine reprint, the only one, was issued in 1907, in 
a series which includes other travel records of this 
period. The better part of what Moryson himself 
left unprinted appeared under the editorship of C. 
Hughes under the title "Shakespeare's Europe" in 
1903. See also under "Falkiner." 

*Mundy, Peter. For his travels in European Europe 
(1608-28) see Hakluyt Soc, Series II, vol. 17, to which 
a useful bibliography of MSS. & printed works is 
appended. A second volume will be partly con- 
cerned with northern Europe. 

Possevino, the Jesuit, besides his "Moscovia" (1587) 
wrote letters to his superiors while engaged on his 
mission thither (1581-82), as did his brother-Jesuit 



Bibliography 403 



Campan. A contemporary digest of these letters was 
printed by Father Pierling (Paris, 1882) under the 
title "Missio Moscovitica." In the editor's other 
books on the relations between the Tsars & the Popes 
will be found indications of other travellers, notably 
in his "LTtalie et la Russie." 

♦Rohricht, R., "Bibliographia Geographica Palaestinae," 
(2nd edition, 1890) a chronological bibliographical 
list of all accounts of visits to Palestine 
and 

♦"Deutsche Pilgerreisen nach dem Heiligen Lande" (2nd 
edition, 1900), another work of extraordinary re- 
search, giving the names of every German whom 
the author has found to have visited Jerusalem be- 
tween 1300 & 1700, with an account of the journey 
whenever remarkable. To a 26-page introduction 
are appended 377 notes, with an enormous number 
of detailed bibliographical references, a large propor- 
tion of which are to MSS. located all over Europe. 

*Rye, W. B. "England As Seen By Foreigners in the 
Days of Queen Elizabeth & James I," 1865. Anno- 
tated extracts prefaced by a long and valuable in- 
troduction containing all that has since become, in 
England, the commonplaces of the subject. In view 
of this latter fact, I have quoted as exclusively as is 
reasonable from writers whom Rye overlooked or who 
visited England outside the dates within which Rye 
confined himself. 

*Saint-Genois, J. L. D. "Les Voyageurs Beiges." 2 vols. 
1846. Biographies, in several cases drawing on MS. 
sources. 

Sastrow, Bartholomew. [Latest (modernized) edition of 
the text of his autobiography, vol. 2 of Schultze's 
"Bibliothek Wertvoller Memoiren," Hamburg, 1907.] 



404 Bibliography 

An English translation, by A. Vandam, exists under 
the title of "Social Germany in Luther's Time." 
Sastrow's journeys, however, reached as far as Rome. 

*Serrano y Sanz, M., "Autobiografias y Memorias" 1905, 
a volume of the Nueva Biblioteca de Autores Es- 
panoles. The long introduction on Spanish autobio- 
graphies mentions many travellers of whose accounts 
I have been able to make practically no use owing to 
my not knowing of the book in time (see pp. 49, 50, 
62, 63, 86, 89, 94, 97 (2), 109, 123, 124, 125, 142, 148; 
and bibliography of Jerusalem pilgrims' accounts, 
55-58). Several of these, however, exist only in MS. 
in Spain. Great Britain & Scandinavia receive little 
attention, but plenty of valuable material seems to 
be included for every other part of Europe; certainly 
this is so in the narratives (i6th-i7th centuries) 
which the author prints. 

Sobieski, Jakob, Marshal of the Polish Diet, travelled 
throughout Europe (1607-13 & 1638). An incomplete 
MS. was printed by E. Raczynski (Posen, 1833) & 
-the missing portion by A. Kraushar (Warsaw, 1903) 
from the autograph at the Imperial Library at St. 
Petersburg. The only part that seems to have 
been translated is that relating to Spain, in Liske's 
"Viajes de Extranjeros por Espana" (a book, by 
the way, that no one who is interested in 16th century 
history can fail to be assisted by). 

*[Szamota, Istvan, " Regi utazasok Magyarorszagon es 
a Balkan-felszigeten, 1054-1717 " ("Travellers of 
the past in Hungary and the Balkans, 1054-1717") 
Budapest, 1891.] 

Taylor, John (the "water-poet"). Both his continental 
journeys — one to Hamburg, the other via Hamburg 
to Prague — have been reprinted by C. Hindley in 



Bibliography 405 



Taylor's "Works" & also by the Spenser Soc. (vol. 
4, PP- 76-100) : that to Hamburg only, in Hindley's 
" Old-Book-Collector's Miscellany." 
Vargas, Juan de, contemporary with Alonso de Guzman 
& Sastrow, both of whose narratives he supplements 
very closely. As a soldier under Charles V in Ger- 
many, his remarkable experiences illustrate the 
present subject: he also saw the wildest life in Hun- 
gary & Vienna, & slave-life in Constantinople & 
Africa. Still more remarkable were his experiences 
in S. America as a "conquistador." His capacity for 
telling us what we most want to know, & for telling 
it well, are so much beyond what might be expected 
from an uneducated soldier as to raise doubts about 
the genuineness of the narrative. But the abundance 
of detail is past invention. It is unmentioned by 
Serrano y Sanz; the only edition seeming to be the 
French translation by the owner of the unpublished 
Spanish MS., C. Navarin, "Les Aventures de Don 
Juan de Vargas" in the Bibliotheque Elzevirienne, 

1853. 

Wotton, Sir Henry. For all references to Sir Henry Wot- 
ton (& for much else) I am indebted to his " Life & 
Letters" by L. P. Smith (1907). Both his life & his 
letters come into touch with the travel of the day from 
various points of view, & frequently; & the same mel- 
lowness & intimacy characterize both the reminis- 
cences of Sir Henry Wotton & the comment of his 
biographer. 

Wynn, Sir Richard, followed Prince Charles from Eng- 
land to Spain in 1625. His account of his journey has 
been printed by Hearne as an appendix to his edi- 
tion of the "Historia vitae . . . Ricardi II," 1729; 
illiterate & prejudiced, but valuable for its frankness. 



406 Bibliography 

Halliwell-Phillips reprinted it at the end of his edition 
of Symonds D'Ewes' autobiography. 
Zetzner, Johann Eberhard, a descendant of the Strassburg 
printers of that name, left an autobiography consist- 
ing largely of accounts of his journeys in Germany, 
along the coasts of the Baltic, in England, Scotland, 
France, & Spain. A paraphrase of the more interesting 
parts has been printed in three instalments, in French, 
in the "Revue d'Alsace" [1905-07?] and reissued 
separately under the titles "Idylle Norvegienne d'un 
Jeune Negociant Strasbourgeois" (1905), " Londres 
et l'Angleterre en 1700" (1905), and " Un Voyage 
d'Affaires en Espagne en 1718 (1907)," all published 
by the Librairie Noiriel, Strassbourg, edited by Ro- 
dolphe Reuss, who has put together in a very read- 
able form matter which is of considerable value not 
only as a record of things seen, but also in connection 
with finance & commerce. In spite of the dates being 
so much later than those of the rest of the books I 
have used, it seems desirable to include these pam- 
phlets here as containing much that illustrates con- 
ditions equally normal a century earlier, & as being, 
too, of such an out-of-the-way character that they 
are liable to be overlooked. 



INDEX 



All names of travellers are indexed, but only those towns concerning which some 
distinctive detail has been given. 



Aarssen, F. van ; 395. 

Abdy, SirT.; 393. 

"Acta Sanctorum" quoted; 179. 

Allen, Cardinal ; as protector of English 
at Rome, III. 

Alps ; see Mountaineering. 

Ambassadors ; see under Embassies, 
Busbecq, Chaworth, Chiericati, Con- 
tarini, Fanshawe, Foix, Glover, Guicci- 
ardini , Lionello, Lippomano, Muscorno, 
Myszkowski, Navagero, Pindar, Sher- 
ley, Willes, Wotton. 

Amsterdam; 117, 281, 329. 
Antwerp; 122, 252, 291. 

Aragona, Luigi d' (cardinal) ; travel- 
ling expenses, 317; itinerary, 396. 

Art; an "Ephesus" statue of Diana, 
149; art-student abroad, his difficulties 
and advantages, 150-1, 376-7; Turk- 
ish arts and crafts, 191. 

Aschhausen, J. G. von (bishop of 
Wiirzburg); travelling expenses, 317. 

Ashley, John ; 393. 

Aubigne, Agrippa d'; his " Les Trag- 
iques " quoted, 349. 

Audebert, Nicolas; 140, 145; his 
MS., 394. 

Augsburg; 119, 141,152,291,350. 

Average Tourist {see Education, and 
Tutors, and, for examples, Aarssen, Au- 
debert, Bertie, Browne, Coligny, Da- 
vison, Hoby, Lauder, Raleigh, Rohan, 
Roos, Sobieski, Wotton); the special 
typeoftheage, 25; and its development, 
26, 319; psychology of, 29, 30, 32, 
378-9 ; instructions to, 37-9, 48, 
57~8> 95 j and Protestantism, 53-6 ; 



objective, 95, 100-1, 114, 118, 130, 
132; what he would have to spend, 
314-8 ; subsidized by Queen Elizabeth, 

319- 

Awliyai Efendi ; quoted, 249, 284. 

Babeau, A. ; his " Voyageurs en 

France" quoted, 270, 284. 
Bacon, Francis ; quoted, 3, 148, 319. 
Barbaro, Giosaffate ; 29. 

Barberini, Rafael ; 383. 
Bargrave, R.; 393. 
Bassompierre, Francois, Marechal 

de ; 108. 
Bathing-resorts ; of western Europe, 

3, 267-9; Turkish, 196; the Jordan, 

235. 
Battista, Giovanni (pilgrims' guide at 

Jerusalem); 230, 239. 

Beasts of prey; risk from, 355. 

Beatis, Antonio de; 396 ; quoted, 162, 

299,381, 385. 
Bergamo; 114. 

Bernini, the artist; 98. 

Bertie, Robert and Henry ; 396. 

Bisoni, Bernardo; 396. 

Blount, Sir Henry, philosopher-errant; 
his aims, 8; quoted, 33, 182, 187, 
202-3, 2I 3> 3 58> 360. 

Bodley, Josias; 51, 400. 

Bologna University; 103, 310-I, 394. 

Boorde, Andrew ; his " Introduction 
of Knowledge " as marking the begin- 
ning of the period here dealt with, 26; 
quoted, 27, 50, 154, 173, 247, 348. 

Bosio, Antonio; his re-discovery of the 
Catacombs at this time, 108. 



4o8 



Index 



Bouchet, Jean (Rabelais' " Xenom- 

anes"); 56. 
Boyle, Robert; 185. 
Brereton, Sir William; in Holland, 83, 

116, 140, 397. 
Breuning, von Buchenbach, H. J.; 

397- 
Bridges; 82, 288-90, 328. 
Brittany; neglect of, 144. 
Brooke, N.; (18th century), 191. 
Browne, Edward (son of Sir Thomas); 

288, 339. 
Brunei, Antoine de; 395. 
Bruno, Giordano; at Geneva, 112; in 

London, 134. 
Buchell, Arend van, antiquary; 246, 

*75, 3*9, 385, 397- 

Busbecq, A. G. de; Imperial ambassa- 
dor at Constantinople, and in France, 
14; his letters, 14, 398; tries to natu- 
ralize camels, 140; quoted, 20, 81, 
187, 192, 289. 

Busino, Orazio; 398. 

Cagots; 138. 

Cairo ; largest city then known, 8; 
Bulak asses, 220; and other details, 
221, 237, 325; usual excursions from, 
222-7. 

Callot, Jacques, the artist; 32 1. 

Camden, W.; quoted, 41, 119, 164. 
Campan, the Jesuit; 403. 
Captivity and Ransoms (see Pirates); 

56, 71, 101, 201, 203, 346, 356- 

62, 366. 
Caravans; 216-9, 228-30, 235-6, 

249, 292. 
Carve, Thomas ; 398. 
Casola, Pietro ; 398. 
Cecily, princess (of Sweden) ; marries 

on condition her husband takes her to 

6ee Queen Elizabeth, 11 ; her journey, 

1 1-3 ; and narrative, 398. 
Cellini, Benvenuto; adventures, 81, 

298 ; quoted, 363. 



Chamberlain, John, the letter-writer; 

63- 
Channel-crossings ; havens, 60-2; 

experiences of, 12, 60-4; size of 

vessels, 64; charges, 328. 
Chapman, George ; quoted, 25. 
Charles II ; his experience of Spanish 

fare, 262. 
Chartres ; a pilgrimage to, 20. 
Chaworth, Sir G. ; outlay on his 

embassy to Brussels, 318; his account 

of it, 398. 
Chiericati, Francesco ; 384, 399. 
Cirot, G.; his biography of Mariana 

quoted, 48. 
Clara Eugenia, the Infanta ; journey 

from Milan to Brussels, 11, 399; 

quoted, 135, 296-7, 303, 306. 
Cieland's estimate of annual cost of 

travel; 315. 
Clothes; 37, 133, 359, 365-8. 
Coaches and Waggons ; 79, 290-3, 

333- 

Coinage ; small change and its bear- 
ing on expenses, 341 ; substitutes for, 
346 ; multiplicity of, a great hindrance 
to travel, 368-72. 

Coleridge, S. T. ; quoted, 45. 

Coligny, Francis and Gaspard de ; their 
estimate for a year in Italy, 315. 

Communications; see under Bridges, 
Caravans, Coaches, Escorts, Ferries, 
Litters, Locks, Mountaineering, Rid- 
ing, River-travel, Road-travel, Sea- 
travel, Sign-posts, Vetturino. 

Compostella; 173-4, 320. 

Constantinople; 122, 194-7,200- 
1, 215-6. 

Bibl.; MSS. Rawlinson, C. 799; 

Stowe, 180 ; and Bertie, Busbecq, 
Carmoly, Cobham, Courthop, Dallam, 
Khitrowo, Moryson, Mundy, Roh- 
richt, Vargas. 

Contarini, Tommaso ; takes peat from 
Flanders to Italy, 140. 



Index 



409 



Conversation -difficulties; see Lin- 
guistics. 

Coryat, Tom ; in Palestine, 232, 329. 

Cost of Travel in 1600. 

Direct (see Coinage, Fares, Fi- 
nance, Food, Guides, Licences, Lodg- 
ing, Luggage, Outfit, Passports, Pil- 
grimage — Jerusalem, River-travel, 
Tolls); estimates of annual, 314—7; 
means of economizing, 318-25; for- 
eigners more liable to overcharge then 
than now, 330; " conducted " travel, 
216, 331-2; crossing the Alps, 332- 
4; duration of journeys the chief factor 
in expense, 332-5 ; in relation to food 
and lodging generally, 338-41. 

Indirect (see Beasts of Prey, Cap- 
tivity, Clothes, Droit d'aubaine, Es- 
corts, Illness, Legal Status, Manners 
and Customs, Pirates, Plague, Robbers, 
Touring — greater strain of travel, 
War); defined, 313 ; epitomized in 
" Litany," 347. 

Courthop, Sir G.; 399. 

Cuelbis, Diego ; 393. 

Cuellar, Captain; 175-6, 399. 

Dallam, Thomas ; 9, 65, 214, 308, 
400. 

Dallington's estimate of annual cost 
of travel; 315. 

Daniel, Samuel; quoted, 379, 389. 

Dante ; did not add to the attractions 
of Florence, 103 ; quoted, 293. 

Danzig; 131, 155, an. 

Davies, Sir John; quoted, 177, 386. 

Davis, William ; a Protestant sailor, 
cared for at Rome, 112. 

Davison, Francis ; cannot live abroad 
on 1 00 marks a year, 316 ; quoted, 344. 

Delia Valle, Pietro ; a model travel- 
ler, 6; life-story, 7; his many interest- 
ing experiences on the way to Jerusa- 
lem, 205-35; quoted, 50, 88, 90, 
191-4, 198, 200, 269. 



Denmark; 155, 244. 

Digby, Sir Kenelm ; dies in Paris, con- 
fiscation of property by "droit d'au- 
baine," 364. 

Douglas, Thomas ; remits broadcloth 
to Algiers as a substitute for money, 
346. 

Dresden; 120, 149. 

"Droit d'aubaine"; enforcement 
and disuse of, 364; its equivalent in 
Turkey, 196. 

Education ; as related to travel (see 
Average Tourist, Ideas, Touring — 
uses of, and, — causes of, Universities), 
growth of the idea, circ. 1542-1642, 
as constituting the unity of subject of 
this book, 25, 26, 158 ; then and 
now, 377. 

Elizabeth, Princess (James I's daugh- 
ter); a visit to, 129. 

Elizabeth, Queen ; sends an organ to 
" Grand Turk," 9; is visited by Prin- 
cess Cecily, 12 ; her twofold attraction 
for foreigners, 125-7; as a linguist, 
47; and "der Einlasse," 141 ; subsi- 
dizes travel, 318 (cf. 346 and 386). 

Embassies (see Ambassadors, and 
Spies) facilitate touring to the point of 
becoming the chief cause of it, 15; 
system of resident ambassadors devel- 
oped in 1 6th century, and why, 15— 
6; economical advantages to the tour- 
ist, 3 lg , 337, 344, 3 6 5; French 
maritime towns send one to Constanti- 
nople, 186, 197, 357. 

Empire, the; communications in, 80, 
289, 291 ; sub-divisions for tourist pur- 
poses, 117; characteristics of, 118- 
21; inns, 242-3, 245, 250, 255-9, 
268-9, 2 ^35 expenditure in, 336-7, 
339-4°, 349-53; coinage, 370. 

people of; popularity of travel 

among, 29; as seen by foreigners, 1 18~ 

21, 255, 265, 366. 



4io 



Index 



Bibl.; MS. Tournay 160, 

Beads, Bisoni, Breuning, Buchell, 
Carve, Clara Eugenia, Cust, Guzman, 
Hoby, Maulde, Montaigne, Moryson, 
Rye, Sastrow, Sobieski, Taylor, Var- 
gas, Wotton, Zetzner; iv. I. note 14, 
vin. notes 28 and 35. 

England (see London); as seen by for- 
eigners, 123-30, 267, 343-4; their 
reasons for coming, 125-6; and usual 
route, 127; inns, 245; communica- 
tions, 291; expenditure in, 330-1, 
337-8, 349. 

Bibl.; Bisoni, Brereton, Breun- 
ing, Busino, Cecily, Einstein, Rye, 
Sobieski, Zetzner. 

English abroad; 346, 356, 386 note 
5; increase in their numbers and its sig- 
nificance, 25-8; in Italy, 28, 74, 112; 
innkeepers, 273-4. 

Ens, Gaspar; one of his guide-booki 
quoted, 49. 

Escorts (see Communications); 38, 
353~4> 3575 Janizaries, 198-9, 216, 

3*5- 

Espinel, Vicente; his '• Marcoj de 
Obregon" quoted, 49. 

Este, Luigi d' (Cardinal); 386. 

Evelyn, John ; visits the Catacombs, 
109; goes to see a prisoner tortured, 
137; his credulity, typical, 146; cost 
of his "Grand Tour," 315; quoted, 
18, 80, 95, 99, 140, 274, 285, 354. 

Executions, etc., as "sights" (see 
Robbers); 136-7. 

Exile ; as a cause of travel; 23-4, 26. 

Fairs; 114, 144. 

Fanshawe, Ann, Lady; her journeys 
and memoirs, 13, 400 ; quoted, 79, 
170, 262, 352, 370. 

, Sir Richard ; 13, 315,370. 

Fares (in Europe); 328-36. 

Ferries and fords; 287-90, 329. 

Finance (see Coinage, Cost, " Putting- 



Out"); equation of money- values, how 
reckoned, 313-4; methods of ensuring 
supply of ready-money, 341-2; how 
coin was carried, 342-3, 372; legal 
limits to amounts carried and how to 
evade them, 343-4; fluctuations in 
values, 338-9, 344-5, 369; remit- 
ting by advice, 344-6, 348; letters of 
credit, barter, and loans, 346—7. 

Finland; wizards on the coast of, 75. 

Flagellants; 138. 

Florence; as attractive then as now, 
103; its Zoos, 139; inns, 271, 277. 

Florio, John; his "First-Fruits" 
quoted, 27. 

Foix, Paulde; 13. 

Food; on board ship, 66, 68, 79, 264- 
5; in Turkey, 249; drinks, 252-5, 
263; meals and meal-times, 255-66, 
278-80, 333; cost, 338-41, 349. 

France; routes, 84, 115, 122; on the 
rivers in, 79, 82-5; attractions of, 114- 
6, 268 ; inns, 255-6, 260, 266, 
270-2, 274, 276, 28 1; on the road 
in, 285,289, 291-2, 300, 330, 354; 
expenditure in, 315, 330, 348-9. 

Bibl.; MSS. Rawlinson D. 120, 

1285, Add. 34177, Egerton 34, Har- 
leian 288, 942/3, 1278, Lansdown 
720, Tournay 159, 160; Aarssen, 
Babeau, Beatis, Bertie, Bisoni, Buch- 
ell, Busbecq, Busino, Courthop, Cust, 
Fanshawe, Hoby, Lauder, Locatelli, 
Montaigne, Mundy, Zetzner; iv. 1. 
note 4, vin. note 45. 

Frederick II (Elector Palatine); 399. 

Fiirer, Christopher, pilgrim; 325, 
358. 

Galileo, G.; 72, 97. 

Galley-slaves ; treatment of, 76, 

137-8, 362. 
Games new to travellers; 153. 
Genoa; 99. H3- 
Germany ; see Empire, 



Index 



411 



Gesner, Conrad ; at a mountaineer, 
304. 

Giustiniani, Vincenzo (Marchese di 
Bassano); 396. 

Glover, Sir Thomas ; in Thrace, 309. 

Gbltlitz, Abraham} quoted, 129, 25a, 
256, 269, 285, 343, 387. 

Good, ; an Englishman in Ireland, 

384. 

Gourville, J. H. de ; "Memoirei" 
quoted, 266, 31 1. 

Gracian, Jeronimo, St. Teresa's con- 
fessor ; enslaved, 186. 

Gramaye, J. B.; at Algiers, 356. 

Greece; lack of interest in, 213. 

Greene, Robert ; quoted, 366. 

Gresham, (?); obtains news from 

hell at Stromboli, 91. 

Gruberus ; a typical guide-book writer, 

35. 2 °4- 

Guicciarditli, Francesco ; 16; on 
Spain, 170. 

Guide-books ; general characteristics 
of , 35-4°, 42-3, 333; itineraries as 
guide-books, 43-6; advice from, 57- 
9; doggrel from, 106, 121, 154, 
204; a Jewish one, 236; cost, 338. 

Bibl.; Einstein. 

Guides (see Escorts and Tutors) 5333; 
in Mohammedan lands, 210. 

Guzman, Alonzo de; his autobiography, 
23, 401 ; quoted, 5 1, 280. 

Hall, Joseph (bishop) ; his abuse of 
travel — in word and in deed, 374. 

Harington, Sir J.; 142. 

Hentzner, P.; typical character of his 
" Itineraria," 44; quoted, 60, 120, 

343, 353- 
Herbert, Lord, ofCherbury; 61, 275. 
Hoby, Sir Thomas; 336, 401. 
Holland ; see United Provinces. 
Horsey, Sir Jerome; 244. 
Howell, James ; his " Instructions for 

Foreign Travel ' ' taken as marking the 



end of the period here dealt with, 26; 

estimate of cost of travel, 3 15; quoted, 

36, 71, 122, 276, 303. 
Hungary; 156, 289, 311, 339. 
Bibl.; Szamota, Vargas. 

Ideas of the Day in relation to 
travel : — influencing travel- 
lers ; political (monarchical), 25, 31, 
33, 95, 115-6, 118, 164; historical, 
40, 109, no, 166-7, 185, 206; 
aesthetic, 103, 214, 302-7; lack of 
sympathy or sentimentality (see also 
theology, intolerance), 136-7, 144; 
critical, 145-6, 148, 214-5, 239, 
301 ; pedagogic, 38-40, 58, 60, 95, 
378-9 ; relating to the Empire, 119, 
351 ; to Spain, 162-70, 261-3, 351 ; 
to Ireland, 175-9; t0 tne Turks, 182- 
9, 193; to Jerusalem, 205-6; to Italy, 
95-100, 103, 302; to the fascination 
of Queen Elizabeth, 125-7; where 
to stay, 101, 163. 

modified by travel (see Tour- 
ing, uses of); 27; historical, 33, 
105, 167; town-planning, 117, 378; 
economic and domestic, 113, 116, 
120, 140-2, 169-70, 201-2; political 
(democratic), 1 19, 120; trustwor- 
thiness of relics, 1 9 ; Scottish opinion 
of Scots, 32; concerning Italy, 100; 
and Venice, 105; of Christians about 
themselves, 171, 199 ; Turkish craft- 
manship and character, 191. 

IllneSS (see Plague, and Touring, 
hardships of) ; provision against, 66, 
360—2; mortality at sea, 67-8; and 
on the Alps, 295-6; hospitals, 112, 
362 ; abundance of vermin, 59, 67- 
8, 121, 241, 309, 360. 

Imperiali, Gian Vincenzo ; 381. 

Inns (see Food, and Lodging) ; 46, 351, 
372; the best, 240-1, 268; inn- 
signs, 240, 250—2; innkeepers, 241, 
245, 273—80; and their case against 



412 



Index 



the tourists, 272-83 ; the personnel, 
245, 275, 281; utensils, 266-7; 
government supervision strict, 271—2; 
town watchmen notify innkeepers of 
new arrivals, 282; "Khans," 247- 
50; free quarters, 249, 265, 280— I, 
319-20, 325. 

Ireland; 175-181, 378 (Dublin); 
scarcity of knowledge about, 41, 179- 
80 ; accommodation, 245, 265. 

Bibl. ; Carve, Chiericati, Cuellar, 

Falkiner, Moryson ; vi. note 7. 

Italy (see English abroad) ; high repu- 
tation in 1 6th century, 6, 95-100, 
254, 302 ; adverse criticism, 100, 
373 ; communications in, 82-3, 85- 
7, 285-94, 329-32 ; usual routes 
through, 102, 114; inns, 241, 252, 
256, 259-60, 271-2 ; baths, 267-8 ; 
expenditure in, 330-1,336; coinage, 
369, 372. 

people of; 114,366; travelling 

coming into fashion with Venetians, 
(1603), 26 ; courtesans, 106, 143. 

Bibl. All but a very few entries 

refer to Italy to some extent. 

Jemsel, Samuel ; a Jewish pilgrim 
(1641), 236. 

Jerusalem (see Pilgrimage) ; relation 
to mental life of the time, 205-7 ; 
monastery of S. Salvatore at, 210, 
230, 323 ; as seen by foreigners, 
230-4, 360 ; extortion at, 323-5. 

Bibl. MS. Ravvlinson D. 122 ; 

Carmoly, Casola, Cobham, Diarium, 
Khitrowo, Moryson, Rohricht, Ser- 
rano. 

Jews ; interest in, 8, 217 ; as linguists, 
50; their badges, 139 ; centres, 214, 
236 ; as travellers (to Palestine), 
235-8. 

Johanna, Frau (of Antwerp), a pil- 
grim ; enslaved, 359. 

Jonson, Ben; as tutor, 56; quoted, 103. 



Jouvin de Rochefort; 384. 

JuSSerand, J. ; his " English Way- 
faring Life ' ' and comparison of its types 
with those of 1600, 17. 

Kiechel, S. ; 384. 

Knight-Errant ; of fiction as a 
cause of travel, 22 ; typified by Alonzo 
de Guzman, 23 ; one in a cart, 291. 

Kochanowski, Jan ; Polish satirist, 
373. 378. 

Koris, Joel ; 393. 

La Brocquiere, Bertrandon de (15th 
century); quoted, 99. 

Lascells, Richard, pedagogue ; 394. 

LasSOta, Erich; 383. 

Latin ; see Linguistics. 

Lauder, John, of Fountainhall ; his 
diary, 3 1 , 40 1 ; studies law — and other 
things — at Poitiers, 31-2; seasick, 
77; quoted, 49, 53, 272, 370. 

Legal status of the traveller (see 
Droit d'aubaine) ; 246, 271, 365 ; at 
Geneva, 112. 

Leipzig; 4, 136. 

Levant Company ; 8. 

, Islands of the ; particularly at- 
tractive to travellers, 8 8 ; some details, 
88-94. 

Leyden ; 4. 

Licences to travel ; see Passports. 

Linguistics ; Latin, its uses and limita- 
tions, 46-49, 215; Italian and French 
as international languages, 49, 50; 
"lingua franca" and other hybrids, 
50—1 ; misunderstandings, 46, 49, 51, 
52, 230-1, 249; tourist-pronunciation 
as a guide to phonology, 52; towns, 
etc., in favour for purity of language, 
103, 115, 121; Jews as linguists, 50; 
books as aids to conversation, 52, 245; 
ignorance of, and lack of interest in, 
Greek, 213; in Turkey, 193, 249. 

Lionello (secretary to Venetian am- 



Index 



413 



bassador); expenses, London, Edin- 
burgh, 331. 

Lippomano, G.; in Poland, 132; in 
France, 353. 

Liske, K.; his " Viajes . . . por Es- 
pana " quoted, 383, 387, 404. 

LithgOW, William ; becomes a bad 
traveller and a worse writer, 10; ex- 
tent of his travels and consequent value 
of his comparisons, 10-1, 89, 123 ; 
quoted, 54, 72, 88, 179, 203, 219, 

a3 2 -5i 3 2 3, 34*- 
Litters the least uncomfortable method 
of travel ; 290. 

Locatelli, S.; 401. 

Locks (on rivers) ; then being intro- 
duced, and where, 82, 83, 116. 

Lodging ; towns the stopping-places, 
101; monasteries, 225-6, 230, 319; 
downstairs, 143, 244, 247, 266; up- 
stairs, 37, 59, 240-50, 265, 269-71. 

London and Londoners ; 120, 134, 

140, «53» 28 9- 
Loreto; 107-8. 

Loyola, Ignazio ; journeys to England 
and Flanders as a beggar, 320. 

LQbeck; 120, 152, 251. 

Ludwig V of Hessen-Darmstadt; pays 
a knight to journey with him, 317. 

Luggage; (see Outfit); 291, 335-6. 

Lyons; 84, 343, 376. 

Madrid; 165, 174. 

Malta; 91, 113, 399. 

Manners and Customs (see Droit 
d'aubaine, Inns, Theology, intoler- 
ance, Vetturino, and under the various 
nationalities); in the Levant, 88-90; 
treatment of foreigners, 1 1 1-2, 132- 
5» !59> »70-I» 176, 197-8, 213, 
231, 296, 311, 330, 343-4; drunk- 
enness, 133, 160, 192-3, 242,254- 
5, 291, 340; odds and ends, 135-54, 
171, 174, 190,246, 250,277, 282, 
312, 321, 332, 366; carrier-pigeons 



and incubation in use among Moham- 
medans, 193. 

Manwaring, ; an Englishman 

ill-treated at Aleppo, 198. 

Maps and Plans; 52, 333; rivers 

marked, but not roads, 78. 
Marlowe's " Tamburlane"; quoted, 

185. 
Maulde, Francois de (Modius); 402. 

Mechanical devices as "sights"; 

water, 1 5 1-2, 174; other kinds, 1 41, 
152.^ 

Messina; its municipal bank, 113. 

Milan; 100, 147, 337; its importance 
then, 102, 120. 

Mines; 155-6, 294. 

Missionaries-errant ; scarcity of, 
24. 

Mole, John, a Protestant tutor; im- 
prisoned thirty years at Rome, 54. 

Money-matters ; see Cost. 

Montaigne, Michel de; as a traveller, 
3-4, 105; usefulness of his knowledge 
of Latin, 47; his theory of travel, 57; 
his narrative, 402; quoted, 43, 107, 
138, 186, 266, 268, 285, 338, 376. 

Montpensier, Mile, de; 270. 

Montserrat; 19, 173, 281, 366. 

Morelli, Jacopo; essay on little-known 
Venetian travellers quoted, 29. 

Morgenthal, Hans von; 382. 

Moryson, Fynes; his journeys, 4-5; 
writings, 5 , 402; at Rome and Geneva, 
III; expenditure, 316, 323, 348; 
quoted, 52, 65, 78, 100, 120, 131, 

137, I4°> '42, 153, ! 79, l86 > r 9 2 » 

198-9, 201, 231, 245, 257-60, 

296, 298, 321, 326,330,343, 353, 

385. 
, Henry; journey to Jerusalem, 

death and epitaph, 4-5 ; " puts out " 

money, 326. 
Moscow; 157. 
Mountaineering ; Alpine passes in 

use and details of crossing, 294—9, 



414 



Index 



3 o6 > 33 2 > 334J other passes, 212, 
299, 300 ; ideas about, for and against, 
300-6. 

ascents $ Horeb and Sinai, 226- 

7 ; Quarantana (Palestine), 235 ; Les 
Jumelles (Pau), 300 ; Roche Rom- 
melon (Alps), 301-2. 

Mundy, Peter ; 14, 402 ; quoted, 82, 
217, 260, 307, 386. 

Munster ; his "Cosmography," 43, 
146. 

Murder of travellers ; see Robbery. 

M uscorno (secretary of Venetian am- 
bassador in England); cost of journey 
thither, 335. 

Muscovy; 156-62, 327, 342; com- 
munications in, 80, 156, 293, 355; 
lodging, 244, 266, 319; fare, 253, 
264 ; an innkeeper of Nerva, 280 ; 
expenses of an Englishman's journey 
thither, 335; coinage, 371. 

people of; hostility to travel, 

159, 367 ; as seen by foreigners, 159- 
61,346; on the way to Jerusalem, 
211, 224-5. 

Bibl. ; Adelung, Khitrowo, 

Mundy, Possevino. 

Myszkowski, Marshal of the Polish 
Diet; in England, 128. 

Naples; 7, "3. "■<>, 138, *5 a » 

292, 320, 343 ; a St. John's Eve 

ceremony at, 145. 
Nashe, Thomas ; quoted, 33. 
Navagero, Andrea; in Spain, 48, 337. 
Netherlands, Spanish ; 122. 
Bibl.; MS. Tournay 159 ; Beatis, 

Bisoni, Breuning, Buchell, Carve, 

Chaworth, Clara Eugenia, Cust, 

Hagemans, Hoby. 
Newberie, John ; his tale of the Isola 

dei Diavoli, 93. 
Nimes; its amphitheatre in 1682, 376. 
Noe, Father ; his guide-book, 42-3 ; 

quoted, 77. 



Northumberland, ninth earl of; let- 
ter to his son about travel, 58. 

Norway ; 346, 406. 

Nutzel, Karl ; (" the German Ulys- 
ses") pays 300% for a loan, 346. 

Ogier, Charles; 385. 
O'Sullivan, Philip, the historian ; 

quoted, 179. 
Outfit ; {see Clothes and Luggage), 37, 

135; for Jerusalem pilgrimage, 66, 

3*5- 
Overbury, Sir Thomas ; quoted, 350. 

Padua; (see Universities), 4, 231, 
320-1, 329. 

Paris; 115, 145, 153, 251-2,289- 
91, 362, 372, 397. 

Parsons, Robert, the Jesuit ; at Ge- 
neva, 112. 

Pasquier, Etienne ; his verdict on 
touring, 375. 

Passports and Licences ; official 

restrictions, 54-5; " charte-partie," 
76; licences to wear weapons, 135; 
in Mohammedan lands, 198; Jerusa- 
lem " Placets," 209; licences to beg 
used by tourists, 320-1 ; cost of Eng- 
lish ones, 337-8; "bills of health," 
360-1. 
Patron Saints ; of travellers, 44; of 
those who stay at inns, 251; of sea- 
farers, 75. 

Payen of Meaux ; quoted, 363, 

383- 
Payne, R.; 385. 
Perlin, a French visitor in England ; 

quoted, 344. 
Perrault, Claude, architect of the 

Louvre ; sticks in the mud, 285. 
" Picaro "; a special 16th century type 

of vagabond, 21-3. 

Bibl.; Chandler. 

Pilgrimage (see Chartrei, Compo- 

stella, Loreto, Montserrat, Saumur, 



Index 



415 



Theology); consecration for, 7 ; an 
epidemic in France, 20; to what ex- 
tent in vogue, 18-20, 179, 208, 320; 
relics to be seen, 145-8, and chap. v. 
part 2; the degree and kind of attention 
relics received, 145-8, 239 ; to St. 
Patrick's Purgatory, 179. 

to Jerusalem ; (*«Jews, Pass- 
ports, Sea-Travel — pilgrim-galley) the 
most popular guide-book for, 42 ; 
routes, 207, 209-14; and their char- 
acteristics, 210-30; information bu- 
reau at Venice, 209; motives for, 208; 
decline of, and why, 208-9; licences 
for, 209; finance of, 209, 216, 229, 
321-6, 365; at Jerusalem, 230-4; 
Easter excursions to Emmaus, Jordan, 
and Hebron, 234-6 ; Knighthood of 
the Holy Sepulchre, 239 ; lodging, 
247-50, 323; enslavement of pilgrims, 
358-60. 

Pindar, Sir Paul; 13, 14. 

Pirates ; the chief centres, 72 ; fre- 
quency of, 72-74; tales of, 74, 106, 
185-6. 

Plague; 201, 299, 360-1. 

Plotius; a typical guide-book writer, 35. 

Poland; 130-2. 263, 303, 337, 364, 
373 ; inns, 243-4, 278; bridge at Yar- 
unov, 289; expenditure in, 339-41. 

Bibl. ; MS. Rawlinson, C. 799 ; 

Adelung, Cust, ^"osinski, Moryson, 
Mundy, Possevino, Zetzner ; iv. I. 
note 14; vi. note 2. 

Possevino, Father (the Jesuit); 51, 
310, 402. 

Prague; 140. 

Psalms ; in use by travellers, 44, 64. 

"Putting-Out" money (travellers' 
insurance); 325-7, 357-8 ; for mor- 
tality among travellers, see under Ill- 
ness, and Robbers. 



Quevedo Villegas, F. G. 
quoted, 21, 275, 308. 



Rabelais; quoted, 44, 57, 77, 139, 
355, 382. 

Raleigh, (Sir Walter) 's son abroad with 
Ben Jonson 556. 

Reresby, Sir John ; quoted, 149, 350. 

Retz, Cardinal de; quoted, 76, 94. 

Riding (see Communications); 44, 
333; Bulak asses, 220; camels, 228— 9; 
post-horse», 292, 330—1. 

Rivadeneyra's " Cisma de Ingla- 
terra " quoted, 41; life of Loyola 
quoted, 286, 320. 

River-, and Lake-Travel; 79- 
87; frequency of, 156; relatively 
cheap, 328—9. 

Riviera, the ; unvisited, and why, ioi, 
260, 312. 

Road-travel (see Communications, 
Luggage and Riding); inconveniences 
of, 79, 84, 328—9; on the way to Jeru- 
salem, 210—30; transition-stage of, 
284-5; anecdotes (state of the roads, 
etc.), 285-7, 308-12. 

Roanne; starting-point for navigation 
on the Loire, 79. 

Robbers and Murderers (see Exe- 
cutions); in south-eastern Europe, 212, 
214, 289; Arabs, 218, 220, 223, 
225, 228-9, 2 34> 3 2 3» 3595 at inns » 
272; highwaymen, 287, 292, 329— 
30, 348-54, 363; a by-product of 
war, 311, 348-54. 

Rohan, Due de (1600); his narrative 
typical, 33, 119; quoted, 117. 

Rome; as seen by visitors, 108-12, 
116, 252, 280, 292, 343, 364, 376; 
numbers received into English College 
there, 28; Protestants at, 54, 110-1; 
hotel Vasa d'Oro at, 240, 338. 

ROOS, Lord; 54. 

Rosmital, Leo von; 399. 

Russia; see Muscovy. 



de ; St. Amant, the French poet; quoted, 
3°3i 3°4» 3°7- 



416 



Index 



St. Malo; guarded at night by savage 
dogs, 3 1 1-2. 

Sanderson, John; smuggles mummies, 
223. 

Sandys, George; quoted, 28, 91, 92, 
113, 187, 232, 323-5. 

Sarpi, Paolo; quoted, 60. 

Sastrow, B.; his autobiography, 20, 
403; quoted, 133, 321, 350-1, 385. 

Saumur; 20, 115. 

Schaumburg, Wilwolt von; 399. 

Schweinichen, Hans von; 399. 

Scotland; 5, 124, 127. 

Bibl.; Brereton, Brown, Cuellar, 

Moryson, Zetzner. 

Scots abroad (see Lauder and Lith- 
gow); 131 (and note), 274. 

Sea-sickness; 12, 59, 63, 77-9. 

Sea-travel (see Channel-crossings, 
Levant, Pirates, Sea-sickness); size of 
vessels and accommodation, 64, 65; 
Eastward-ho ! from Venice, 68 ; inci- 
dental difficulties, 69, 70, 267, 312; 
water preferable to land, 70, 7 1 ; daily 
service, Genoa-Rome (1588), 71 ; 
coasting the usual practice, 71-2; 
storms, 11, 74-6; sorcerers and good 
weather, 75; the need of the " charte- 
partie," 76; a " funeral " at sea, 93; 
Turkish sailors, 197, 201. 

pilgrim-galley (Venice-Jaffa); 

arrangements in theory and practice, 
66-8, 208, 210; concerning the date 
of its cessation, 207—8. 

Seville ; 172, i74> *8i. 

Shakespeare's knowledge about It- 
aly, 86, 112, 114; a conjecture about 
"Othello," 188; Rosalind on the cost 
of travel, 313; quotations, 154, 222, 

3°7, 3 6 3- 
Sherley, Sir Anthony; 291, 357. 
, Sir Robert ; his many journeys, 

13- 
Sicily; 113, 147. 
Sidney, Sir Philip ; abroad, when, 



where, and why, 27; quoted, 35, 58, 

io o, 3*4, 333, 35*- 

" Sights "; see Art, Bathing, Execu- 
tions, Fairs, Flagellants, Galley-slaves, 
Games, Levant, Locks, Manners and 
Customs, Mechanical devices, Mines, 
Pilgrimage-relics, Unicorn horns, Vol- 
canoes, Women, Zoos, and names of 
towns. 

Sign-posts; 293-4. 

SigonillS, the Italian scholar ; could 
not speak Latin, 48. 

Sinigaglia ; inn at, finest in Italy, 241 . 

Smith, Captain John; 294, 385. 

Smith, L. P.; his life of Sir Henry 
Wotton, 104, 405. 

Sobieski, Jakob ; in France and Eng- 
land, 128-30, 384, 387, 404. 

Solre, Comte de (Sieur de Molenbais), 
394- 

Spain; 162-74, 261-3, 343i 3 6 4 5 
the usual itinerary through, 1 63 ; com- 
munications in, 85, 289, 292, 300, 
354; inns, 242, 246-7, 261-3, 
278-80; expenditure in, 337, 340; 
coinage, 371. 

people of; the women, 170; 

the men, 171 ; few know Latin, 48; 
a Spanish dentist, 362. 

Bibl.; MSS. Rawlinson D. 1286, 

Harl. 3822, Egerton 311; Tournay 
159 ; also Aarssen, Busino, Chiericati, 
Fanshawe, Farinelli, Fouche-Delbosc, 
Guzman, Sobieski, Wynn, Zetzner ; 
1. note 3, vii. note 13, vm. note 42. 

Spenser, Edmund; as foreign corre- 
spondent, 17. 

Spies ; qualify for their work by travel, 
1 6 ; numerous but not communicative, 
17- 

Stampes, (?); 394. 

Strassburg; 119, 133, 152, 286, 
288. 

Students ; (see Universities, and, 
Average Tourist), 121, 134, 320. 



Index 



417 



Sweden; 155, 244, 4°6. 
Switzerland; see Mountaineering. 

Bibl. MSS. Rawlinson D. 120, B. 

M. Add. 34177; vii. notes 5 and 12. 
Symonds, Richard ; 393. 

TasSO, Torquato ; quoted, I41, 303, 
382. 

Taylor, John (the " water-poet") ; 
80, 137, 370, 404. 

Theology in relation to Travel [see 
Pilgrimage) ; as a cause of travel, 24; 
a "religious test" for tutors, 53-4; 
examples of intolerance, 28, 53, 75, 
1 1 1-3, 133, 171, 362; attractions 
of Mohammedanism, 55-6 ; increases 
the interest of volcanoes, 97 ; in 
Spain, 167. 

Thou, J. A. de ; accompanies de Foix 
to Italy, 14 ; interview with Sigonius, 
48 ; nearly drowned on Lake Wallen- 
stadt(?), 81; quoted, 97, 180, 260, 

*74, 3 00 > 35°. 
Tollsand Duties; 320, 328, 336-8. 

Touring, [1 542-1 642] ; spread of the 
idea, 25-30, 158; bibliography of, 
29, 389-91 ; estimates of amount of 
(see Constantinople, English abroad, 
Ireland, Pilgrimage, Scots abroad), 
29, 236 ; towns the stopping-places, 
IOI ; hardships of, and their effect {see 
Illness), 102, 163, 173, 179, 223, 
242-4, 260, 286, 310-2, 375-6 ; 
official supervision of (see Passports), 
131, 158, 271-2, 343, 346, 351 ; 
compensations, 377-9. 

for and against (see Ideas, 

modified by travel); opinions of Bacon, 
3; of Montaigne, 3, 57; of Pasquier, 
375; new ideas and knowledge brought 
home, 14, 140, 378-9; otherwise 
unobtainable, 17, 40, 140 ; opposition 
to, 36, 158-9, 373-4; how far 
reasonable, 375 ; some weak points, 
375-7 ; tourist-books as a source of 



knowledge for us, 52, 72, 82, 86, 
118-9, 124, 154-6, 162, 175, 189, 
193, 202, 213-4, 232, 350. 

special causes of (see Average 

Tourist, Embassies, Exile, Pilgrimage, 
and Tourist, types of) ; commerce, and 
lack of means of communication at a 
distance, 18 ; exploration, 18; dif- 
ficulty of obtaining information from 
abroad, 17, 25, 40-3 ; current fic- 
tion, 22 ; theological, 24 ; Philip 
Sidney's reason, 27; historical, 28, 
284 ; the chief cause, 34. 

Tourist, types of, in 1600 (see under 
names mentioned in pages here follow- 
ing, and also, Average Tourist, Pil- 
grimage, and Tutor) ; Subjective, 
3-4 ; Objective, 4-5 ; Perfect, 6 ; 
Philosopher, 7 ; Unintentional, 8 ; 
Intolerable, 9; Feminine, 11-3, 59; 
Ambassadorial, 14, 130-1; mediaeval 
types, and how far they survived, 17- 
23; Spy and News-Gatherer, 17; 
Commercial, 20, 13 1, 321 ; Vaga- 
bond, 21-3, 321; Exile, 23; Mission- 
ary, 24, 286, 320, 402-3 ; Various, 
24, 92 ; Journalistic, 80. 

Transylvania ; cheapness of food 
there, 340. 

Travellers and Travelling; see 

Tourist and Touring. 

Turberville, George ; on Muscovy, 
159. 

Turks ; relation to European States, 8, 
182-9, 197, 204; Christians' fear 
of, 22, 85, 113, 117-8, 188 ; con- 
versions by, 55-6, 356; learn navi- 
gation from renegades, 73 ; Danube 
mainly a Turkish river, 81 ; increase 
of their sea-power during this period, 
106, 184-6 ; as seen by tourists, 90, 
189-91, 200-2, 269, 343, 346, 
360; their teetotalism, 93, 190, 192; 
likeness to the Japanese as contrasted 
with Christians, 191, 321 ; signs of 



418 



Index 



decay, 192 ; other characteristics, 90, 
189-91, 200-2, 269, 343, 346, 
360; "Khans," 247-50; coinage 
used by, 369, 372. 

their ruler, the Grand Signor ; 

Dallam and, 9; as an employer, 55; 
supposed to possess a complete Livy, 
194 ; diversions of, 196 ; how to see 
his palace, 196-7; audiences with, 197. 

■ Bibl. ; see Constantinople and 

Jerusalem. 

Tutors ; 37, 180, 316 ; Hentzner as, 
43—4 ; qualifications, 53 ; Ben Jon- 
son as, 56. 

Ulm ; 120. 

Unicorn horns ; fact, fiction, and 

prices, 149, 150. 
United Provinces; 116-7, 348; 

communications in, 83, 291, 294, 329. 

people of; 132, 143. 

Bibl.; Beatis, Bisoni, Brereton, 

Buchell, Cust, Hagemans, Hoby, 
Moryson. 

Universities {see Bologna, Padua, 
Saumur, Students, Wittenberg); Alcala 
and Salamanca, 48; Italian ones ideal- 
ized, 103; Orleans, 115. 

Vagabond; tee "Picaro." 

Valois, Marguerite de; 152; her Utter, 
290. 

Vargas, Juan de; 405. 

Venice; 4, 136, 149, 153, 291,329, 
341, 360— 2; more English there than in 
the rest of Italy, 28; as a model State, 
100— I; attractions of, 103-6; small 
boysof, 133; inns of, 252, 274,276-7. 

Verona; 113. 

" Vetturino-system " ; what it was, 

33 1; its rise and services, 332-4. 
Vienna; isx, 147, 188, 288, 395. 

Villamont, Sieur de; quoted, 65, 87, 

104, 143, 302, 329, 382. 
Villers, MM. de; 365, 383, 395. 



Villingen, Pastor Peter, pilgrim to 

Jerusalem, 1565; enslaved, 359. 
Vinci, Leonardo da ; a conversation 

with, 396. 
Volcanoes; 91. 

Waller, Edmund ; 80. 

War; (see Robbers); decreases use of 
Latin, 47; even distribution of war 
and peace in this period, 124, 350; as 
affecting tourist finance, 348, 364. 

Weston, Sir Richard ; learns much 
from the Dutch, 116. 

Whetenal, Lady Catherine; 394. 

WilleS, Dr.; cost of journey, England, 
Muscovy, 335. 

Wilson, Arthur; 63. 

Winghe, J. de (of Tournai); 395. 

Wittenberg; 121. 

Women and Travel; (see Cecilia, Clara 
Eugenia, Fanshawe, Johanna, Whe- 
tenal); at Rome in 1600, 18; advice 
concerning, 59; in a seven-day Chan- 
nel-passage, 63; position of, in Italy and 
United Provinces, contrasted, 142-4; 
Jerusalem " Placets " not granted to, 
210; embarrassments of, when abroad, 
269-71; of Chios, 88-9; Russian, 
161; Spanish, 170; Irish, 177-8; 
Turkish, 200. 

Wotton, Sir Henry; quoted, 26, 71, 
*54, 299, 329, 341, 347, 349, 356, 
405. 

Wunderer, Johann David; at Pskov, 
162. 

Wynn, Sir Richard; 385, 405. 

Zeiler, Martin; guide-book to Spain 
quoted, 48, 351, 364. 

Zetzner, Johann Eberhard ; 406. 

Zinzerling, J.; his itinerary as a guide- 
book, 46; quoted, 122, 134, 138, 
150, 252, 291. 

"Zoos" of Europe; 139, 140, 174, 
196. 



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(arte lfttUer?i&e jpec^ 

CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
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